Peanutopolis
filed in Blogging/Web, Design: Graphic Design on Jul.19, 2006
When driving around the Upper East Side of NYC last weekend, I noticed the rooftop ad on a yellow taxi cab. It was simply a single word: PEANUTOPOLIS. The typography was very familiar. It was the Snickers® candy bar logo. I recognized it instantly and I said so to my wife when we saw it. I made a mental note to myself to google it when I got home. Amazingly enough, there is very little on the web about this. The Snickers website [snickers.com] has no reference of their new viral marketing campaign, however they proudly display their two recent television spots which are overlapping with this viral campaign nicely (I actually just saw one of their spots while typing this entry).
The little I did find on the web were a few personal photos on flickr and a single blog entry… oh, and some humorous parodies of the campaign over at brand spankin. Where are the bloggers at??
Here’s what I’ve gathered. This is a viral marketing campaign by Mars, Inc. (Snickers brand parent company). Their agency is TBWA/Chiat/Day. They have crafted several made-up words, framed in the snickers-style logotype. The words that have surfaced so far are PEANUTOPOLIS (seems to be the most frequently seen), HUNGERECTOMY, SUBSTANTIALICIOUS and NOUGATACITY. I’ve personally witnessed the campaign in NYC and the flickr photos show them on the SEPTA bus, which is Philadelphia’s public transportation system, Los Angeles (Hollywood) and the other blog entry mentioned seeing them in Boston.
We could be witnessing a very targeted test market of only the biggest cities, or this could be a full-blown national campaign that, unfortunately, nobody is talking about…which would suck for Mars & TBWA/Chiat/Day. The problem with viral marketing is that sometimes people DON’T talk about it.
They see it.
They may chuckle.
They may think it’s witty.
But they don’t retain the experience and therefore don’t pass it on to someone else, thus ending the spread of the virus.
Personally, I’m a fan of the concept. I think the words their agency invented are fun and memorable. The typography and design skill is flawless. It’s a really good idea… however, not knowing when this campaign launched, it is hard to measure its success. Only time will tell… and Snickers market share. One thing’s for sure, the internet community and blogosphere is not talking about it. At least, not yet.
Have you seen any of these? Where? What did it say? What do you think of the concept? Do you like viral marketing?
EDIT: Added 7/20/06 11:30 AM
Well, it seems more bloggers are talking about this campaign. Here’s a few links:
AdFreak.com
The Sherman Foundation (via: AdFreak.com)
Gawker.com
July 20th, 2006 on 7:44 am
Haven’t seen this one in our humble SW FL burg … yet. My guess is that is limited right now.
Viral marketing is a great strategy if you have two things:
1) a great marketing concept that grabs attention
2) a great product that will keep people talking
Blair Witch was one of the most successful viral concepts I’ve seen.
One of my favorites, though, was the series of BMW short films that were available only online. Didn’t cause me to buy one (the rent/mortgage performed a monthly budgetectomy), but using the vehicle as a main character was fabulous.
Bottom line is always the same, however. It doesn’t matter how great your marketing campaign, if the product doesn’t measure up and you disappoint your audience, it is very difficult to get them to come back.
July 20th, 2006 on 7:59 am
Good thoughts Tim. So going by your recipe for viral success, I would say that if this campaign is indeed UNsuccessful, than the fault would lie with your first point. I can’t blame it on the product itself. Snickers has been a strong brand since it came out and I don’t forsee it being in any kind of financial danger anytime soon. So the fault would have to lie on the campaign itself not being strong enough.
The BMW short films were fantastic. Didn’t cause me to ever consider buying a beemer either.
July 22nd, 2006 on 6:52 am
I’m not a big fan of the words they’ve chosen other than Peanutopolis. I think they need to come up with some better ones.
July 31st, 2006 on 6:29 am
I hadn’t seen Peanutopolis, but here in Fort Worth we have seen the Hungerectomy and Nougatocity on several billboards. I like what they do for billboards, because those have such a short amount of time to get you and I was amazed the first time I saw one just how quickly I recognized the font. I’ve never been a huge snickers eater, so I can’t really say it is affecting me all that much. I think it’s clever, gives me a little laugh while I’m stuck in traffic…but surely they want more than that. Although like you said, I think they are probably doing alright!
July 31st, 2006 on 8:43 am
they aren’t doing the bus campaign here in mexico city, likely because people wouldn’t recognize the text immediately as quintessentially snickers. so they’re going another route; on t.v., the commercials for snickers splashes out the slogan “comete el mundo,” or “eat the world.” i guess that would definitely perform a hungerectomy.
August 2nd, 2006 on 12:40 pm
I saw some of the billboards while in the Dallas/Fort Worth area this weekend. And as I am always a fan of made up words, I might be their target audience. I’m looking for a way to use “Nougatocity” in a sentence.
August 2nd, 2006 on 6:37 pm
Where can I get a t-shirt?
August 4th, 2006 on 8:01 am
I have seen Peanutopolis on a billboard in a town about 25 southwest of Boston, MA. It totally caught my eye and I new that it had to do with Snickers right away. And I don’t eat candy.
August 10th, 2006 on 12:53 pm
Saw one 8 miles north of Boston on a billboard…Nougatacity. I like the whole concept, identified it to the SNickers brand immediatey, but I prefer all of the new words over Nougatacity.
September 22nd, 2008 on 6:42 pm
I just saw the word “peanutopolis” a few minutes ago after eating a snickers bar. It’s Sept 22, 2008, two years later after the first blog was up on this site about it and I just noticed it. Shame on me.
It’s funny though, I only noticed it because it was written inside the wrapper and those letters caught my attention. Now I see that it is also written outside the wrapper, but I hadn’t notice that before when I bought it, then carried it with me to my office, opened the wrapper, etc….
July 13th, 2010 on 4:15 pm
Please remind me exactly how nougatocity is defined.