The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2016
Snickers' Hungerithm prices candy by internet anger — 2 Spikes Asia Grands Prix
An algorithm reads ~14,000 posts a day and drops the price of a Snickers at 7-Eleven whenever the internet gets angrier — 150,000+ bars sold.
Snickers (Mars Chocolate Australia)
What it had to solve
Snickers' platform, 'You're Not You When You're Hungry,' needed a modern proof point. Mars Chocolate Australia and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne noticed the internet's mood visibly sours at predictable moments, and 7-Eleven's 630 Australian stores offered a national retail network to make that observation purchasable.
How it works
Snickers had spent years telling people 'You're Not You When You're Hungry,' mostly through films with famous faces. Mars Chocolate Australia and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne wanted to prove the idea in real time: the internet, they observed, gets measurably angrier at certain moments of the day, so the brand's moment is whenever the collective mood sours.
The Hungerithm made that observation the product. An algorithm built on a 3,000-word lexicon — able to read slang, sarcasm and context — monitored about 14,000 social posts a day and repriced Snickers more than 140 times a day. When anger rose, prices fell: a bar that normally cost about A$2.70 could drop as low as A$0.50, as much as 82% off.
To buy at the live price, shoppers checked the mood on snickers.com.au, tapped 'Get a Snickers' and generated a barcode reflecting the price at that moment; they showed it on their phones at any of 7-Eleven's 630 Australian stores. No app download, no printing. Video, digital, outdoor, PR and social amplified the real-world events that moved the price.
The five-week run delivered more than 30 million earned media impressions, more than 150 articles worth over A$1.4 million in earned PR, Twitter brand mentions up 120% and website traffic 400% above benchmark, and sold more than 150,000 Snickers in 7-Eleven stores. At Spikes Asia 2016 the campaign took Grands Prix in both Media and Mobile, and it later won Gold in the first global Twitter Awards.
Why it lands
- It turned an insight — moods sour before meals — into a live pricing signal instead of a slogan.
- Every angry tweet became part of the mechanism, so the campaign generated its own earned media.
- The barcode mechanic connected social sentiment directly to a purchase in 630 physical stores.
- It let a data stream override a price list in real time, showing how far an FMCG brand could take a data-led idea.
What it did
The five-week campaign delivered more than 30 million earned media impressions and 150+ articles worth over A$1.4 million in earned PR; Twitter brand mentions rose 120%, website visits hit 400% above benchmark, and more than 150,000 Snickers were sold. It won two Spikes Asia 2016 Grands Prix — Media and Mobile — and Gold at the first global Twitter Awards.
What you can take
Don't just put your brand in the cultural moment — let the moment set the offer: when the promise is about mood, a price that responds to mood turns the campaign into a live market people watch.
Since then
Mars announced at launch that it planned to take the Hungerithm global in 2017, and the campaign quickly became the reference example for real-time, data-driven pricing in packaged-goods marketing. The work stayed in awards casebooks for years, including Gold at the first global Twitter Awards, as an early case of letting social sentiment set a retail price.
Sources
- Clemenger BBDO Melbourne And Mars Create New Snickers 'Hungerithm'
- 'Hungerithm' Lowers Snickers' Price In Response To Angry Social Trends
- ClemengerBBDO Win Big At The First Twitter Awards
- Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity 2016 Award Winners Announced
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