We very recently shot and edited this campaign for client Wheat Thins. In case you’re from foreign as they used to say in England, Wheat Thins are an American snack that is universally loved here in the USA. As the name suggests, it’s a wholesome wheat-based unit of yum.
Wheat Thins’ problem is, if anything, over-familiarity. The reverse of the awareness problem. It’s available everywhere and it’s been around forever. But there is a lot of love for the brand. How do we know this? Because we found it flowing like a torrent on Twitter. While coming up with ideas for Wheat Thins we had the idea of searching Twitter to see what, if anything the Twits were saying about Wheat Thins. We were stunned to find hundreds of unprovoked declarations of undying love for the brand. Some were just slavish “I love Wheat Thins so much i would die for them” . Some were more witty. Some were just odd.
As anyone who tweets regularly knows, the one thing you DON’T expect is for your random tossed-off utterances to have any consequences. That’s the ONE THING you can be certain of. Until now that is!
We selected a random selection of pro-Wheat Thins tweets and slyly tracked down the Tweeters. We then arrived in a van, A TEAM style, and confronted them with their tweets. We thanked them and gave them a gift based on their particular tweet and left basically. Leaving stunned tweeters in our wake. As you can imagine it was enormous fun to shoot. And in case you’re wondering, we usually had the assistance of a facebook friend or otherwise contacted family member to help us set up our marks. I’m always amazed at how easy it is to set up people for pranks. Don’t trust your loved ones!
Among our victims we had a Mom (and wife of a Navy Seal), an air guitar champion (i know, he sounds casted. he wasn’t), a dude in a coffee shop (set up by him mom. hi Beverly!) and a trainee nurse. it was completely random. And no it wasn’t faked. These were actual tweets. That’s what made the whole thing fun: the element of the unknown. The uncontrollable.
We hope you like them as much as we do. Kudos to fearless Wheat Thins clients Jim Low and Beth McMorrow who toughed it out with us in the white video bus that didn’t really have a whole lot of video to be honest. But great A/C! Thank you driver Gary!
Tabitha
and Tim
CREDITS:
AGENCY:
Managing Director: Norm Bilow
Creative Director: Vinny Warren
Creatives: Allan Stevenson/Jimmy Olson
Exec. Producer Kent Kwiatt
Production Co: SMUGGLER
Exec. Producer: Brian Carmody
Director: Renny Maslow
Producer: Shelby Ross
Editorial: Whitehouse Chicago
Editor: Matt Walsh
Asst. Editor: Matt Jameson
Sound: LIME L.A./Sam Casas
Color: New Hat/Bob Fresca
ESCAPOLOGY (the escape pod's blog) 
We have a ton of Wheat Thins in the house. Definite household preference to Wheatables or Store Brand. Glad you got the biz!
Those were great! Awesome! But a bit of Domino’s new recipe lifting spot. You were eating a pie during creative development? LOL Though I bet Dominos was staged.
v — those are outstanding/hilarious. nice work! congrats all around
I was almost scared that it would turn into yet another “crowdsourced” idea for a product. You brilliantly avoided that Vinny and the end result is very cool.
Wahoo for Wheat Thins Tim. I’m thinking a Wheat Thins Tim Where’s Waldo is next. The picture on the box only a mother could love. I searced all over the grocery stores in Las Vegas and couldn’t find that box. Searching San Diego next. Where can I get a yellow van and travel across the country looking for “The Box?
LOVE THIS PROGRAM!
The concept of surprising real people is almost as addicting as Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Wheat Thins!
Howie, glad you liked. it’s funny, both Crispin and us have done a lot of pranking over the years. and used the same directors. but we started before them. although i have to say we started out using their now head of production David Rolfe. it’s a muddled up thing. But i’m pretty sure this is the first use of Twitter in TV ads. we beat crispin to THAT one!
Beverly, thanks for your help in setting up your son. he was deadpan brilliant. we actually thought it might be funny to hit him up again in a few months.
vik. there will be no crowdsourcing here!
philip. glad you liked. we’ve come a long way since our first Schooled. or maybe we haven’t! that was good times.
tim is headed to Chicago in August
tell him he should def. swing by for lunch/beers. we owe him one!
miry, look over there! is there a yellow van coming???
Come on! You do not have a creative called Jimmy Olsen.
Next you’ll be telling us your client services director is called Lois Lane or, better, Lex Luthor.
I did see Jimmy Olsen standing by a phone booth while Wheat Thin Tim was changing into his WT suit and cape
Jimmy (or Jim) Olson is real! he’s an amazing machine of awesomeness. There used to be a Dick Tracy at DDB Chicago. Maybe it’s a Chicago thing.
Where’s the air guitar spot?! I got some more tweeting to do!
Fear not Bjorn! There was so much good stuff in yours that it turned into a minute plus epic. It’s being released next week. you rocked! i think you’ll be very happy with it.
Awesome. This could be huge.
As huge as wazzup? yeah why not, it’s a new world. at least make sure u f* try.
love this idea
thank you nico. that means something coming from you. i’m just happy to be doing things that feel right.
Vinny the use of twitter was really slick. I had no idea Crispin did the Domino’s spots. Your spots are better overall and I say that not because I have gotten to know you and don’t know a soul at Crispin. I believe in wheat thins. I would rather starve than eat Domino’s LOL
And you did twitter the right way. Whenever I see the ATT Motorola spots showing social networking I want to jump through the screen and kill everyone at the agency and ATT for being dumber than the back side of a cow. The 2 psots are the family on the porch and the news room ‘so and so is wearing flip flops per facebook, twitter confirmed’. In fact I am never ever going to ATT just because of those spots. LOL
god those spots sound horrid. ignorant of social media. it’s not JUST trivia. as you and me know too well howie! ;-)
Passes the jealously test. Nice one Vinny
glad you like Phil. thanks
Congratulations Vinny and everyone at TEP for taking a dowdy brand-name cracker and giving it its life back. Given my own experience with crispy snacks, I truly appreciate the success you’ve created by getting a great idea all the way through the overthink and/or devil’s advocate gauntlet of internal reviews, etc.
My one and only quibble is that the rest of the campaign is a shambles. Over at http://www.wheatthins.com there’s some CGI swarm of crackers dancing around some actress/model on a seamless stage. Then when you “Friend Us on Facebook” from there you get some cartoon-esque app with a Bonnaroo Festival tie in.
I suppose the entire budget for WT may’ve been used just to get the spots in the can. But you’ve got a social influence phenomenon made of content that screams for consumer involvement.
The idea is top shelf. The spots are fun, funny and worth sharing. So where’s the rest of it?
thanks for the kind words there miggon. we do our best!
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Who’s the actor in the yellow t-shirt reading the tweet and knocking on the door?
His name is Brian Palatucci. He was a find.
Pingback: Twitter user tweets about Wheat Thins shortage, company sends her a pallet of them