Infiltrating Gen Z
Infiltrating Gen Z (without feeling like an ad)
Snapple needed renewed relevance with Gen Z—an audience that ignores “campaigns” but shows up for culture. We partnered with Lil Nas X at the peak of “Old Town Road” and created Yee Yee Juice: a custom Snapple product designed to feel native inside his universe, not bolted-on as product placement. We used an Innovation Sprint to pressure-test what “authentic” meant in this moment, then built the activation mechanics around participation: celebrity seeding, media mailers, and shareable social tools (Snapchat Lens + a library of response GIFs) so fans could play along—and Snapple could respond in real time.
Results: culture → participation → measurable lift
The partnership landed as culture, not advertising—driving 248M impressions, a 5× increase in social conversations, and a +17% lift in brand sentiment. Fans requested their own Yee Yee Juice 1,000+ times, and our moderation system (including 70 response GIFs) kept the moment alive—strong enough that Lil Nas X tweeted one of the GIFs to his ~2M followers.
