Work/Airheads & MentosCampaign concepts · 2016

Gum for the fun of it

Perfetti Van Melle was launching Airheads Gum, candy flavour that lasts because it is packed with MicroCandies. Four launch concepts for the brand’s social and content channels, presented by Huge in November 2016, and a set of “Who says no to gum?” frames for Mentos.

Gum for the fun of it: hand-lettered type with Airheads packs and fruit on a bright blue ground
Client
Perfetti Van Melle: Airheads, Mentos
Agency
Huge, Atlanta
Role
Design and motion
Dates
2016
Output
Four Airheads Gum launch concepts with key visuals, primary messages and social executions; seven Mentos “Who says no to gum?” frames
01The brief

The positioning was Stick to Play: with gum, it is what you do while you chew that makes the experience. Airheads Gum extends the candy flavour so you do not have to stop to pop another piece.

Four concepts took that in four directions, each with a primary message, a content idea and a set of tactics for social, in‑store and sampling. The job was to present them on 15 November 2016, get the room’s feedback and align on which to test.

  1. This flavor hangs with you. The flavour personified as a buddy who sticks around and brings the fun.
  2. Gum for the fun of it. Gum has become weird, romantic, extreme; this is the antithesis, just fun.
  3. MicroCandies. Massive flavor. Big things in small packages: how the flavour gets compressed into tiny pieces.
  4. Get lost in the flavor. Candy flavour that lasts long enough to relax into, and gum like no one’s watching.
02The concepts
Concept 1 key visual: the cherry Airheads flavour character standing behind a driving test examiner while a nervous driver waits in the car
1. This flavor hangs with you. The flavour rides along: the driving test, chores, games, spotting you at the gym.
Concept 1 on YouTube: The Lesson, driver's ed with Cherry Airheads Gum, 295,218 views
On YouTube. The Lesson: Driver’s Ed with Cherry Airheads Gum, plus flavour mascots in store, hidden‑camera content and Facebook Live hangouts.
This flavor hangs with you: a Cherry Airheads Gum pack and a cherry-red hand giving a thumbs up against a blue wall
The key visual. A thumbs up from the flavour, and the longer‑lasting pack.
Concept 2 key visual: a rider on a bike with animated flavour splashes and 1000 counters painted on a wall behind
2. Gum for the fun of it. Cinemagraphs: people chew, and a world of animated flavour comes to life around them.
Concept 2 social execution on a Facebook page
In the feed. Mundane tasks turned into games, cornhole boards printed as the pack, an AR candy experience.
Concept 3 key visual: Airheads bars under a hydraulic press on a blue ground
3. MicroCandies. Massive flavor. Classic flavours compressed, blown up and compacted into tiny pieces; a content partnership with the Hydraulic Press channel.
Concept 3 social post: how it's made
How it’s made. The story of where MicroCandies come from, as a series.
Concept 4 key visual: an Airheads pack lounging on a sofa in a green room, Get lost in the flavor
4. Get lost in the flavor. Relax into it; a Get Lost challenge for influencers and sampling stations with hyper‑coloured visuals.
Concept 4 social post: a hypnotic blue spiral with an Airheads pack
In the feed. Classroom, first date, ballgame: places to get lost in the flavour.
03Mentos

Who says no to gum? Seven frames in which a hand offers a stick of Mentos gum, and an alien, a baby, a golfer, a pilot, a robot, a woman and a yeti all take it.

Seven Mentos frames on a light blue ground: Who says no to gum? with an alien, a baby, a golfer, a pilot, a robot, a woman and a yeti each taking a stick of gum
Seven takers. One hand, one pack, seven answers to the question.
Who says no to gum? A yeti's furry hand taking a stick of Mentos gum
The yeti. Not even him.
04Where it landed
  • DeliveredFour Airheads Gum launch concepts with key visuals, primary messages, content ideas and tactics, presented 15 November 2016 with next steps: feedback on the 16th, confirmation of the concepts to test on the 18th
  • DeliveredSeven Mentos “Who says no to gum?” frames at 1920 by 1080
05My role

I was a designer on the Huge Atlanta team for Perfetti Van Melle: the key visuals and the social executions for the Airheads Gum concepts, and the Mentos frames. Huge’s strategy and copy team set the positioning and wrote the primary messages.