Whisps “Guilt Free” Campaign Targets Moments of Snacking Remorse

Whisps, the Schuman Cheese brand of crunchy cheese crisps, is announcing the end of guilty snacking with its first ads, created by Partners + Napier. Coming on the heels of the Super Bowl, one of America’s biggest events for overeating, Whisps launched a digital campaign inviting snackers to ditch the guilt and grab some Whisps.

In “A Fishy Situation,” the first in a series of online videos, a Whisps fan finds something else to feel guilty about (a dark moment involving the family’s pet goldfish) once she is freed of snacking guilt.

“This clip is just the start of a media blitz,” said Jim Low, EVP of Marketing and Sales at Schuman Cheese. “We’ll be taking our message of guilt-free snacking across the Internet and inviting our fans to share their own moments. After all, people should be able to enjoy snacks without feeling bad or confused by the ingredients — that’s the problem with so many traditional snacks — and we’re proud Whisps can help.”

The campaign has already racked up over 30.3 million impressions through social and video pre-roll, more than double the projected benchmark, and video has been viewed to completion nearly 4.6 million times – driving thousands of new visitors to the website.

After the Super Bowl, the campaign targeted other big cultural moments of snacking at the Grammys and Oscars with the launch of a Twitter bot that chews up consumers’ guilty snacking confessions and creates shareable memes.

“Our media approach worked hand-in-hand with our creative strategy to play off snackers’ guilty moments,” said Jordan Murphy, Group Media Director at Partners + Napier. “To make our message even more relevant, we bought media on pop culture sites like BuzzFeed, TMZ, and The Onion — sites our audience frequently visit and might feel guilty about. This targeting, combined with our day-after-event strategy, gave us a cost-efficient and highly effective way to introduce Whisps.”