Pringles #PlayWithPringles TikTok Challenge
Submitted by We Are Social

Pringles #PlayWithPringles TikTok Challenge

Influencer Marketing

We Are Social ran a TikTok hashtag challenge with star influencers for Pringles, inviting Gen Z to play with the can, and reports 4.7B challenge views.

4.7BTikTok Challenge Views
13%Engagement vs Best
13%Engagement Rate
+15%Ad Recall Lift, Italy

About the campaign

We Are Social ran the #PlayWithPringles challenge on TikTok for Pringles, and the challenge drew 4.7 billion views. Pringles is a long-established snack brand with a well-known tagline. The brand wanted to reach Gen Z as a snack made for sharing, because a TV ad and a tagline no longer held their attention during COVID.

The agency positioned the Pringles can as a playful prop for a time of lockdown boredom and loneliness. It worked with star influencers on TikTok and created a hashtag challenge urging fans to #PlayWithPringles. Fans filmed their own videos with the can and shared them on the platform.

The agency reports 4.7 billion views of the challenge on TikTok. Fans created 2,025,154 videos. The average engagement rate on TikTok was 13%, and engagement was 30x higher than the brand's previous best performing promotion. Brand lift studies recorded ad recall at +15% in Italy and a 15% rise in brand awareness in France.

Case in 60 seconds

Pringles judged that a TV ad and a tagline could no longer hold Gen Z attention during COVID, so the brand needed a new way to present itself as a snack made for sharing.

Lockdown left Gen Z bored and lonely while that audience already talked to itself through TikTok, so a can that gave people something to play with and share fitted the content they were making anyway.

We Are Social positioned the Pringles can itself as a playful enabler for a period of boredom and loneliness, something to be seen with and have fun with, carried by a TikTok challenge.

Star influencers on TikTok fronted a hashtag challenge under #PlayWithPringles, which urged fans to film and share their own videos playing with the Pringles can, building on how people already behaved on the platform.

We Are Social reports 4.7 billion views of the TikTok challenge and 2,025,154 videos made by fans, with a 13% average engagement rate and engagement 30x higher than the brand's previous best performing promotion. Brand lift studies put ad recall at +15% in Italy, and brand awareness in France rose 15%.

Strategy Breakdown

Gen Z, whom Pringles wanted to reach and establish itself with as a snack made for sharing.
COVID lockdowns left people bored and lonely, so a brand offering playful distraction and something to share had a reason to appear in their feeds at that moment.
A TV ad and a well-known tagline no longer captured Gen Z attention, so the broadcast approach that built the brand could not carry it to this audience.
Pringles cast its can as a playful enabler, a thing to be seen with and share, which gave the brand a working part inside Gen Z social content.
Gen Z already made and shared content on TikTok, so the challenge built on that habit by handing people a prop and a hashtag to post under.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • TikTok

Partners

  • We Are Social

Participation mechanic

  • Fans joined the #PlayWithPringles hashtag challenge on TikTok by filming and sharing their own videos playing with a Pringles can.

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
TikTok Challenge Views4.7B views
TikTok Videos Created2M videos
Engagement vs Best13%
Engagement Rate13% engagement rate
Ad Recall Lift, Italy+15% ad recall
Awareness Lift, France15% brand awareness

Why We Are Social's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A product with a recognisable pack can serve as the prop in a creator challenge, because the object gives participants something physical to perform with and keeps the brand inside every frame.

  2. 2

    A hashtag challenge fronted by known influencers turns viewers into producers, which is how one TikTok mechanic produced 2,025,154 videos rather than a small set of sponsored posts.

  3. 3

    Lockdown boredom gave a play-led brief a ready cultural reason to exist, so the work could frame a snack as relief from isolation instead of arguing about the product itself.

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