Cheetos Egypt

The objective

Launching hashtag-shaped Cheetos on TikTok

Cheetos, owned by the global company PepsiCo, is one of the world’s most popular snack brands.It is renowned for its distinct cheesy flavor, crunchy texture, and an extensive range of flavors that cater to diverse consumer preferences, from mild cheddar cheese to flaming hot.

To promote its new launch in Egypt, Hashtags shaped Cheetos, the Brand sought to leverage the TikTok platform to generate awareness. Cheetos opted to launch the new product through a hashtag challenge on TikTok, an excellent solution to create buzz around the launch. To make the campaign even more interactive, a branded effect was also created.

The campaign ran for 4 weeks and targeted the genZ community on TikTok, aiming to engage and entice them with the new product.

The solution

Combining Branded Effect and a creator-led Hashtag Challenge

To power the hashtag challenge, Cheetos leveraged the TikTok Creator Marketplace to identify some of the most popular young creators in Egypt. Since the campaign included a dance challenge component, the brand chose creators who were also known for their Music Lipsync content.

Using the Cheetos Branded Effect as their background, each creator showed off their best “zigzag dance" to the tune of upbeat original music developed for the campaign. In the captions, the creators encouraged their followers to participate in the challenge by using the same Branded Effect and performing the “zigzag dance" themselves. All videos incorporated the hashtag #شيتوس_هاشتاج_ورقصة_الزجزاج.

To maximize the campaign reach, Cheetos leveraged Spark Ads to boost the creators’ videos and ensure reach on the campaign’s target audience. It wasn’t long before thousands of TikTok users and other creators joined the challenge!

The results

Achieving significant reach and brand lift success

The campaign registered groundbreaking results that surpassed benchmarks.The creator-led content paired with Spark Ads led to a massive reach of 11.3M unique TikTok users. Videos using the Hashtag Challenge also racked up 92M Video Views. This is twice the benchmark number for Hashtag Challenge views in Egypt!

Partnering with TikTok creators to lead the campaign proved to be an effective strategy for creating virality. Over 13,000 videos were generated using the hashtag, exceeding the benchmark for similar campaigns in Egypt by more than three times.

A Brand Lift Study was conducted to gauge the campaign’s impact on brand perception. The study found that the campaign resulted in an +8.4% Ad Recall uplift, indicating its memorability for TikTok audiences. Additionally, there was a +13.3% Brand Awareness uplift, further demonstrating the campaign’s success.

Start your own trend on TikTok to get your target consumers participating! Visit TikTok Creator Marketplace to find creators to lead your campaign.