Vol. 98 Cheetos: One insight, one hand 🖐️

Case Studied
All about that bright orange dust  

Cheetos is a brand known for being playful. Many of their marketing stunts revolve around the brand’s unique flavors and the orange cheesy dust—aka Cheetle—that’s known to stick to consumers’ fingers while eating the snack. 

In 2021, they partnered with the hip-hop lifestyle brand Rock The Bells to create eight original art pieces made from Cheetle, and debuted them at the Art Basel festival in Miami. In 2022, they made a novelty kitchen gadget called the Cheetos Duster that blends Cheetos into Cheetle dust. And in 2023, their parent company Frito-Lay promoted the Cheetos Flamin’ Hot flavor by partnering with Megan Thee Stallion on a campaign based on the fictitious Flamin’ Hot University. 

But instead of diving into any of those campaigns, we’re going to focus on what the brand got up to in 2024. 

This week, Case Studied explores how Cheetos generated 2.2 billion impressions on a campaign fueled by one single insight.

The Brief

Launched in 1948, Cheetos is one of Frito-Lay’s most iconic brands and a cornerstone of snack culture. Its mascot, Chester Cheetah, has been an irreverent spokesperson since the 1980s, helping position Cheetos as a playful brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

As the snack market became increasingly competitive in recent years, Cheetos has continuously looked for ways to stay relevant, particularly among Gen Z and millennial consumers. 

To do that, the brand closely researched how consumers interact with their product. What did they learn? It turns out, 99% of consumers eat Cheetos with their dominant hand—and the brand saw a major opportunity with this stat. So, they built an entire campaign based on it. 

The Execution

Cheetos teamed up with Goodby Silverstein & Partners to launch The Other Hand, an integrated campaign spotlighting snackers who reserve one hand for eating Cheetos and one for, well, everything else.

The campaign started with a video ad featuring NBA star Jamal Murray humorously juggling life with just one clean hand. He’s seen stumbling through tasks like tying his shoes, landing high-fives, and removing his warm-up gear, all while keeping one hand safely coated in Cheetle.

There was also a hero film that showed what happens when folks attempt to use their “other hand” at work. The botched work of a sketch artist, a baker, and a plastic surgeon are all shown, among others, while each person keeps their dominant hand raised, bright orange finger tips aglow (even the pinky). 

Cheetos then took the campaign a step further by having their design team create an entirely new font using their non-dominant hand. The new typography was wobby, imperfect, and looked a lot like a child wrote it. 

From there, they created a tongue-in-cheek, behind-the-scenes style video showing the team creating the new design, known as the Cheetos Other Hand font. One designer says, completely deadpan, “This is more than just a font. It’s design in its purest form.” Later towards the end of the video, movie-style reviews are shown saying things like, “Worst font ever” and “An insult to design.”

The brand partnered with design influencers to spread the word about their new font. It dropped on National Handwriting Day and Cheetos made the new typography downloadable on their website. They challenged folks to apply it in other places (think: at work, at school, etc.) and post their most creative applications for the chance to win a limited-edition bag of Cheetos featuring the Other Hand font. 

The campaign’s print and OOH media captured the same energy. One billboard showed hand-written text that said, “99% of people eat Cheetos with their dominant hand. Even calligraphers.” Another billboard appeared in front of two cars on a New York City street—one parked on top of another—that said “99% of people eat Cheetos with their dominant hand. Even drivers.”

The Results

The Other Hand caught the attention of hundreds of major media outlets, from Fast Company to TMZ. Meme accounts picked it up and the campaign garnered a 100% positive or neutral sentiment. 

All in all, The Other Hand racked up over 2.2 billion impressions and saw an 11.8 point lift in social awareness on Meta. As for their sales, Cheetos sold 5 million more bags of Cheetos during the campaign compared to the prior period—and that was at a time when the savory-snack category had seen a 0.58% decline.

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The Takeaways

1)  Lean into your product’s quirks. 

Cheetos didn’t try to hide the messiness of their product. They leaned into it and reframed orange-dusted fingers as something relatable and even a point of pride among consumers. 

When your product has a quirk or an imperfection, it’s not automatically a liability. Explore how that “flaw” might actually represent something true and endearing about your brand or audience. It could be a way to connect honestly (and maybe even humorously) to your consumers. 

2) Extend ideas beyond the screen.

The Other Hand lived across every touchpoint, from the downloadable font to the UGC on social media to OOH. Every element was engaging and they all worked together to promote a unified message in a unique way. 

When planning your next campaign, think about how the central idea can translate across unique formats and mediums. How could your concept evolve into experiences that audiences can see, touch, and even type with?

3) Talk about your audience in your ads.

Cheetos’s entire campaign was focused on telling the audience’s story of how they interact with the product. They invited consumers to join the conversation via UGC, allowing consumers to connect more deeply to the brand.

Consider how you can focus your campaign messages more on your consumer. Look for ways you can celebrate them and invite them to participate in the conversation. When done strategically, that kind of engagement can help turn brand affinity into brand love.

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