Old Town Road - Overnight Sensation
The “country-trap” song by 19-year-old Atlanta rapper Lil Nas X grew rapidly in popularity and eventually achieved widespread recognition among Gen Z. The song launched on SoundCloud in December, gained massive attention on TikTok, then charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in March. When Snapple was invited to join Lil Nas X in his music video debut, it created the perfect opportunity for Snapple to relate to a younger Gen Z audience.
Addy Award Winner: Best in Show & Gold - Social Media
Tik Tok: The Launchpad
Our strategy team and creative teams worked closely to ensure that we paid homage to the original meme-like videos created by the Gen Z target that had taken off on TikTok. As we embraced the original source of “Yee Yee Juice” and incorporated it into the label design, we helped Snapple add to existing culture instead of pushing our own agenda.
Execution: Celebrity Outreach
As with any great music video today, Lil Nas X enlisted several celebrities to make cameo appearances in the video and drive more buzz. We capitalized on the opportunity to extend social conversation and sent branded packages to celebrities associated with the video. We also sent packages to celebrities who publicly voiced their love for the song. Each was sent a premium custom package that included:
Contents:
🤠Snapple Yee Yee Juice bottle from the video
🤠Specially designed western bandana-print bottle
🤠Personalized Snapple Real Fact cap
🤠 Personalized letter
🤠Customized Stetson cowboy hat with Lil Nas X cowboy emoji
Community Management
On May 16, the night before the video was set to launch, we saw Lil Nas X post about the Snapple-branded package we sent him. This gave the brand an opportunity to engage with his fans around the excitement of the video launch and generate buzz around Snapple Yee Yee Juice, resulting in more than 200 fans’ messaging Snapple requesting their own bottle of Yee Yee Juice before the video launched.
Of the 14 celebrities who received packages, 35 percent posted about their custom Snapple gifts to their social channels. Due to the mass reach from their posts, we fielded more than 1,000 inquiries from fans for their own custom bottles. There were even requests for Snapple to sell Yee Yee Juice in stores.
We also developed a moderation strategy including 70 response GIFs cut from the video to surprise fans with custom responses. Using insights from popular response GIFs on giphy.com and footage from the video, we created GIFs to use in real-time moderation of the official music video drop. This approach added value for those who interacted with Snapple and provided a fun way to engage with consumers throughout the process. Even Lil Nas X himself tweeted to his 2 million followers using one of our custom-made GIFs.
Market Results:
Snapple’s presence in the “Old Town Road” video drove a significant increase in the brand’s social media conversation and positive sentiment (from roughly May 15 to May 22). The largest conversation was driven by celebrities posting about the custom packages they received and the retweets and responses of their passionate fans.
This partnership drove five times more conversation compared to Snapple’s daily mentions, namely from Lil Nas X posting May 16 and Rico Nasty posting May 20. The video trended as the number one video on YouTube and accumulated over 201 million views in the first month. Throughout digital touchpoints, the partnership drove an estimated 248 million impressions. According to NetBase, overall net sentiment of Snapple was 86 percent positive during the week of the video debut, 17 percent higher than average.
Online media – across the realms of Gen Z lifestyle, music, and pop culture – showed great excitement for the launch of the “Old Town Road” video and Snapple’s role as Lil Nas X’s Yee Yee Juice of choice. Top national media shared both traditional coverage and social media posts showing off their Snapple Yee Yee Juice mailers, resulting in more than 74.2 million impressions.
