Socialize and Bugles team up for Crunch Time

General Mills, the FMCG multinational, launched their first ever Bugles campaign in the region and have done it through TikTok! With the help of Socialize, a full-service agency with an integrated offering across creative, media & technology, snack brand Bugles has developed a TikTok first campaign video and launched a hashtag challenge on the platform to reach the Gen Z audience in KSA.

Bugles wanted to start building the same loyalty and brand-love they get from older generations, with Gen Z in KSA. Socialize figured the best way to tap into this new audience was with a new approach to content, one that only they could understand.

Engaging the interest of Zoomers is a challenge; they’re too savvy to care about traditional marketing messages and they see right through ads and plugs from influencers. So how do Bugles - a one-of-a-kind snack actually reach these guys? By staying true to the brand identity - by being playful and surprising. The campaign simply started with that.

Socialize created a TikTok-first hero video packed with deep-fried memes, random visuals that changed every second, and a new dance move set to infectious music. TikTok is a new platform for the brand but made complete sense for this campaign as it is massively popular with the Gen Z audience in the region. It’s the #1 downloaded app in KSA with 12.5 million users on the platform - who open the app roughly 10 times throughout each day.

With 81% of TikTok users browsing the platform with sound on, it was essential to have a unique soundtrack for the campaign. The brand utilized one of Socialize’s new in-house offerings, Socialize Sounds, to create the original song: Crunch Time.

On the strength of this campaign, Socialize will be working with Bugles at General Mills going forward, creating Gen Z-centric content for their social channels.

Azfar Ul-Islam - Marketing Director and Head of Food Service at General Mills was excited about the campaign: “The idea wasn’t something I immediately resonated with, but that’s kind of the point. It’s not meant to be for me; it’s designed to speak to this next generation of Bugles fans, who we’re only just beginning to understand. Everything about this campaign was new to us in some way: new audience, new platform, new kind of content. What Socialize created is fresh, exciting and completely aligned with our ‘Not for the boring’ messaging.”