Nutella experienced the stuff of marketing dreams on Monday when a jar of its hazelnut spread floated by astronaut Christina Koch’s head during a livestream of the Artemis II rocket as it approached the moon. The brand quickly pounced on the rare opportunity with social posts and has no plans of slowing down.
“We’re going to keep the momentum going because it’s genuinely a great story,” Noah Szporn, senior VP of spreads at Ferrero North America, told Ad Age in an email today. “You’ll see us leaning into this across social and beyond … And more to come.”
Since appearing in space, Nutella has seen a 516% increase in brand mentions over the daily average and mentions were up 910% between April 6 and 7 compared to the previous two-day period, according to data from Sprout Social.
But as it seeks to keep leveraging the out-of-this-world opportunity, the brand must be mindful of not looking too opportunistic, according to social media experts.
Also: Inside chocolate marketing trends—the Dubai craze, coping with high cocoa prices and more “Nutella has just been handed the ultimate earned media gift, but the biggest mistake brands make in these moments is trying to own the conversation instead of joining it,” said Geoffrey Goldberg, co-founder and chief creative officer at Movers+Shakers.
“If Nutella just pushes out a standard brand message, they look like an opportunist crashing a party. The real win is in the comments section, and joining the community where they are at.”
So far, Nutella seems to have struck the right tone. It initially weighed in on Monday with a social post of the jar’s fly-by with the words, “Nutella is out of this world,” and captioned, “Honored to have travelled further than any spread in history. Taking
spreading smiles to new heights.”
Read the full article here.