Strategist: Marketing, Brand, Culture
Case Study:
Flamin' Hot University
Brand: Flamin' Hot (PepsiCo Frito-Lay)
Role: Brand Marketing Manager
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos have been my go-to sleepover snack as a kid and favorite party snack as long as I can remember, so it was a real full-circle moment and dream come true to work on this brand and campaign!
Executive Summary
Flamin’ Hot® has been an iconic flavor for salty snack products for over three decades now. Consumers think of Flamin’ Hot as more than just a flavor, because the people who enjoy Flamin’ Hot snacks are so different than the people who don’t. It was time to start thinking of Flamin’ Hot as a brand. The Flamin’ Hot brand partnered with Megan Thee Stallion to launch the campaign Flamin' Hot University - a first-time campaign bringing the swagger and rebellious attitude of Flamin’ Hot fans and highlighting the breadth of the Flamin’ Hot portfolio.
Challenge & Objective
The challenge was to get snackers to view Flamin’ Hot as a brand by connecting with Flamin’ Hot snack fans in a way that aligns with their interests and identity.
The objective centered on awareness of course, and also showcasing the breadth of the Flamin’ Hot portfolio to snackers - beyond just their beloved Cheetos or other SKU - to get Flamin’ Hot fans to try our other delicious snacks.
Our giveback and purpose component and celebrity partnership aimed to connect with our fans’ passions and establish this new brand with credibility.
Insight &
Big Idea
Insight: Flamin’ Hot snack fans are more rebellious, swaggy, and multicultural with distinct tastes, like being more into rap & hiphop, than snackers who don’t love Flamin’ Hot. We needed a bold platform that established Flamin’ Hot as a brand, illustrated the broad portfolio of Flamin’ Hot products, and resonated with the Gen Z crowd with a cheeky campaign aligned to their interests and passions, such as achieving their dreams.
Big Idea: Flamin’ Hot University - or FU for short ;) launched with self-proclaimed Flamin’ Hot fan and the hottie herself, Megan Thee Stallion. Meg not only personifies the Flamin' Hot brand, but she's also a proponent of philanthropy and consistently showcases her drive & ambition while maintaining her rebellious and fun-loving spirit.
Bringing the Idea to Life
We launched Flamin’ Hot University as a platform and complete 360 integrated marketing campaign with digital and physical components. We had a dream team of agencies and a fantastic roster of amazing marketers which made coordinating a multi-faceted campaign like this feel smooth and so fun. The agency teams spanned across creative, social, influencer, talent, and experiential. Flamin’ Hot University was centered a digital platform website, with limited-edition bags of chips designed in partnership with Megan, an influencer campaign with the influencers teaching ‘classes’ on the Flamin’ Hot lifestyle, a designer collegiate-inspired merch collection with a Hypebeast partnership and merch sale proceeds going towards a scholarship fund, and live on-campus activations at Texas Southern University (TSU), a Houston-based historically Black college or university (HBCU) and Meg’s alma mater, in addition to social, digital, and in-store/POS components.
​
What I worked on:
My superpowers for this project: collaboration and execution!
Multi-agency Management
Led inter-agency meetings with 30+ participants, prioritizing workstreams and leading the teams on problem-solving and collaborations
Purpose
Partnership
Facilitated non-profit and corporate partnership between the university, merch supplier, and the company to fill the scholarship fund and establish application process of recipients, resulting in 40+ senior applicants for the scholarship
Talent
Partnership
Supported project management and execution of high-profile Talent partnership from coordinating with PR for press tours, budget and invoice management, to security walk-throughs of the venues
Custom Merch
Drop
Led business negotiation and execution of contractual agreement for designer merch partnership and led brand POV on design, resulting in co-branded, well-designed five pieces of custom merch sold on designer’s website
Packaging
Design
Guided the strategy for custom limited-edition packaging design, in collaboration with the design team and Talent Partnership
Media
Partnership
Coordinated media partnership strategy and execution with Hypebeast, resulting in incremental audience awareness and buzz from their hypebeast and hypebae properties
Creative Asset Strategy Development
Supported Video, Social media, and Digital Asset Strategy and Development, collaborating across digital, social, and media agencies resulting in over 1.5 million likes on TikTok
Experiential
Events
Oversaw execution of two in-person, campus events with talent, programming, and sampling resulting in 12,500 snack bags sampled
PR & Earned
Media
Collaborated on PR & Earned Media strategy at national and local level resulting in 100% positive to neutral coverage of the campaign and its elements
Influencer
Marketing
Established Influencer Engagement Strategy and collaborated with influencer agency on Influencer Management; worked with external vendors to design and produce custom influencer kits leading to incremental 17 million earned impressions
Copywriting
Conducted copywriting and scriptwriting for website, audio ads, talent interview, and video ads
The Results
-
4B earned impressions
-
100% positive to neutral sentiment for press coverage
-
$200,000+ towards scholarships for graduating seniors at Texas Southern University
Behind-the-Scenes & Extras
-
Planned and executed two on-campus events in coordination with the University, planning and production teams, celebrity talent management, and PR/social teams- the second one being a meet-and-greet with scholarship recipients!
-
Supervised on-the-ground team with assets and security: signage, tents, sampling, security for talent
-
Provided $200,000 in scholarship funds for graduating seniors
-
Resulted in national and local coverage
Making my ahh face with Megan Thee Stallion!
