Cultural piggybacking: the GOAT of marketing hacks
By Creative team. Top image: Ideogram AI
You don’t have to be a sponsor or official partner to be part of the conversation. You can culturally piggyback
Cultural piggybacking enables agile brands to demonstrate their relevance by associating with culturally impactful phenomena, trends, movements, events, online communities, and even popular memes.
The payoff is elevated profile but, more than that, cultural piggybacking is a brilliant way to reach Gen Z - who expect their brands to share their values, humor, and outlook on the world.
Formula win
The growth of live WatchAlong content - along with predictions and after show analysis - is an increasingly popular way for brands to positively tap into big events.
The trick is in adding value in a creative and authentic way.
Enter WTF1 and their second-screen, Formula 1 watchalong. They add personality, hot takes, and interesting points of view not found in traditional commentary. What’s missing is the rights to show the race, but they have a getaround...
A Lego recreation made by Moving Bricks! Creative, fun, and (kinda) authentic.
Kentucky fried circuits
What about an event that’s keenly felt by a significant portion of your audience? The bucket-shaped KFConsole was KFC’s hilarious reaction to PS5 and Xbox shortages.
They even released a mock commercial for the tech that they still swear is real and is coming. Check out the Chicken Chamber which keeps your KFC warm while gaming.
Needless to say, the campaign went viral and led to widespread coverage in the gaming and tech media.
But that wasn’t a one-off success for KFC. Here’s their sassy response ad reacting to the launch of the long-awaited God of War Ragnarok:
And, with our UK hats on, we can’t resist showing you KFC’s Coronation Chicken Tower Burger:
The ultimate in chicken royale, the special edition sandwich was released in time for the Diamond Jubilee.
Far more than a weak pun, the funsters at KFC made the campaign work by tying their product to coronation chicken - a recipe that was originally invented to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II back in 1953.
They also limited availability of their meal “fit for a Queen” to restaurant locations with a royal connection.
Having a pop
Cultural piggybacking is the perfect way to show your brand has a sense of humor.
On the left, Pepsi dreamed up the scariest image they could for Halloween - cheekily ribbing their arch rival.
While on the right, Coke accepted Pepsi’s challenge, firing back with a quick-witted response.
Slam dunk
For agility, it’s hard to beat Oreo’s “Dunk in the Dark” tweet from Super Bowl XLVII.
A power outage plunged the stadium into darkness and cut off coverage of the game for TV viewers.
Oreo met the shared cultural moment with a playful twist on their long-running “dunking” brand message.
While Oreo didn’t know the blackout was coming (at least we don’t think they planned it), they had set up a social media command center to react to big game events in real time.
They weren’t the only ones:
Which is your favorite?
Take a chill pill
A well calibrated response helps show the human face of the brand, revealing that you can take criticism and don’t take yourself too seriously - a vital attribute in the eyes of gamers.
When social media users likened the design of Xbox Series X to a fridge:
Microsoft proved they could laugh at themselves and produced the Xbox Series X Mini Fridge:
You can still buy it too.
What’s the beef?
Some culturally significant events now take place purely in virtual worlds. Here, Wendy’s pwned a Fornite Food Fight by declaring war against the in-game freezers.
It was funny, players loved it, and it was on-brand because: “Wendy’s doesn’t do frozen beef.”
Best of all, though the gag started online it didn’t stay there as US news networks picked up word of the bun-fight and ran with it.
Hogging the limelight
As you can see cultural piggybacks can range anywhere from a single tweet to commissioning an entire product line!
However, what they collectively demonstrate is that cultural piggybacking must be:
Astutely judged - The wrong response can result in a net negative, especially if you’re piggybacking social justice movements.
A positive contribution to the conversation - That usually involves humor and lightheartedness when trading in pop culture moments. Make sure your social teams are briefed to capitalize on the ensuing audience engagement.
Natural - Only join in when you can find a clear brand link to the situation.
Planned - Even real-time tweets can only hit home if you anticipate an opportunity for your brand to join in the fun, having deployed your resources in advance.
On brand - As always your execution needs to fit your unique look, feel, and tone-of-voice. Naturally, any creatives involved need to know your brand inside out.
Researched - What does your audience care about? What rising trends is each segment paying attention to, and what are the big events in their calendar?
Find out more about how our research facility, creative team, and rapid-turnaround content production unit can help you with every aspect of cultural piggybacking.
If you would like to discover more about our integrated approach and work together on a project, get in touch.
