How a TikTok banger helped Twix own a crucial moment in the calendar

The Media Plan

Christmas is a particularly busy time for advertisers, with research suggesting that UK consumers spend almost £600m on festive products and activities. That said, half of us find this period more stressful than enjoyable.

Chocolate brand Twix needed to find a way to stand out yet avoid wider consumer fatigue during this time.

That was the task for EssenceMediacom, which found that 46% of Gen Z don’t know what Twixmas is. Once more for you lot at the back: it’s those few days between Christmas and New Year.

It’s a period that’s all about relaxing after the Christmas frenzy and, naturally, when advertisers cool down their activity too.

Twixmas. Twix. What better brand synergy could there be?

That’s edu-tainment

“In a marketing calendar saturated by brands, Twixmas is wide open,” said Matt O’Hara, business director at EssenceMediacom. “And the self-indulgence of Twixmas fits perfectly with Twix, so we’re putting our stamp all over it before any other brand.”

But there was one problem: Twix had a limited budget. So the brand knew it needed to be all over PESO (paid, earned, shared, owned) activity.

To punch above its media weight, EssenceMediacom decided to go down the “edu-tainment” route by creating a catchy post-Christmas song featuring D Double E and Nella for a music-loving Gen Z audience on TikTok.

It’s a platform that’s big on user-generated content, so the aim was to also inspire users to share their own Twixmas celebrations.

EssenceMediacom bought premium TopView and feed ads to ensure Twix was top of mind for this audience, while some of the budget went to paid search to help drive users looking for things to do during Twixmas to the Twix site.

And the strategy has borne fruit. According to EssenceMediacom, impressions were 122% higher than the benchmark and engagement was up 28.9% on the benchmark. The campaign went 174% over the agency’s TikTok influencer engagement KPI.

“With such a tight budget, it feels like a very well-rounded plan,” O’Hara suggested.

He did not feel the campaign was weighed down by a low spend, noting: “As we had £150k to use for media, we had to double down on one platform/channel. Fewer, bigger, better was the name of the game.”