A PR strategy to create new eating experiences for classic snacks! Creating a “Okashi(snacks)” buzz! Introducing a case study of the team from confectionery manufacturer Tohato Inc.
Hello, this is Morikawa from the Public Relations Division 1.
“76″ This is the number of press releases related to new products that Tohato issued during the year of 2020. In fact, the pace of new releases is more than one per week!
Not only Tohato, but also other confectionery manufacturers release countless new products each year, competing fiercely for space on the shelves of convenience stores and supermarkets.
The same is true for PR.
Tohato has many classic popular products such as “Caramel corn,” “Poteko,” and “Bou-kun Habanero. Rather than trying to create a buzz only with new products, we are always thinking together with our clients and partner companies about how we can make our regular products more accessible to a wider range of people.
In 2020, the COVID-19 has focused attention on how to enjoy time at home. In fact, many people are probably making and eating more sweets at home.
Tohato has long been posting “arranged recipes” for its standard sweets on Twitter and other social media, and in particular, the “Harvest Millefeuille Sandwich” recipe using their famous cookie “Harvest” became a hot topic on social networking sites.
Seizing this opportunity, we decided to promote “Harvest Millefeuille Sandwich” and other arranged recipes across our official website, Twitter, and PR.
“Arrangement Recipes” corner on Tohato’s official website (https://www.tohato.jp/recipe/)
Start with understanding the product! Communicate actual voices to the media to create a buzz
In the past, our media approach has involved going around the media with a lot of snacks and explaining them to the media while they actually ate them. For hygiene and infection control reasons, it is difficult to serve our own recipes, so we sometimes made them inside at our company and served them to members, using the feedback from the people of our company as a hint for our approach so that we can tell the media about them.
In the media, we made sure we wrote what we thought of the recipe and the feedback we received on social networking sites, and many were very interested to try the recipe on their own. This was a positive cycle of media coverage, especially on the web, but also on TV variety shows, which in turn became a hot topic of conversation on SNS.
As a result, it was a good opportunity to create an “experience” for more people to learn about and eat our standard product “Harvest” through various media.
This time, I would like to specially report on the “behind-the-scenes” of our in-house trial-and-error process of creating arranged recipes in preparation for the media approach.
Cooking in the central kitchen!
SUNNY SIDE UP now has a large kitchen in the middle of the office after the office renovation in November 2020.
In this “Central Kitchen,” we would like to make “Harvest Millefeuille Sandwich,” a recipe using Tohato’s popular snack “Harvest” and drained yogurt.
All you need are these ingredients!
It’s so easy to make! Just alternate layers of Harvest and drained yogurt and let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours until moistened.
When you take it out of the refrigerator… “Harvest millefeuille sandwich” is ready! What on earth does it taste like?!
Smelling the scent of cookies, many people gathered at the central kitchen.
Although they were at work, the members had a moment to enjoy the sweets. Many people were saying that it was very delicious and it tasted like cheesecake.
The Tohato team seemed very happy to hear these comments.
In addition, Tohato is now proposing many other recipes that can be enjoyed in a different way by simply adding a twist to standard confectionery!
We actually tried making these recipes as well.
(Left) Caramel corn with shiso sprinkles
(Right) Caramel corn with milk
These recipes were also well received, even including the Caramel corn and shiso sprinkles recipe which had received mixed reviews before the meal was served.
Surprising new discoveries through unexpected combinations are one of the best parts of arranging recipes.
We want to create a “Okashi(snacks)” buzz with the power of PR.
In this way, the Tohato team at SUNNY SIDE UP is constantly searching for new ways to communicate information that will help people enjoy Tohato’s sweets even more.
The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of “Caramel corn,” one of Tohato’s most popular snacks.
We have started a campaign to create sweet and happy memories by singing and dancing with the “Caramel corn,” including a special web movie featuring a bold and fun remake of the nostalgic “Caramel corn” commercial song by a major artist and an AR filter that allows you to dance with “Caramel corn-kun.”
The campaign is also available now.
“Utaeru corn” campaign: https://www.tohato.jp/cc/50th/
We will continue to do our best to create a “Okashi(snacks)” buzz with SUNNY SIDE UP’s unique and fun PR methods!
(In addition to the “Harvest Mille-feuille Sandwich” we made this time, we are now introducing recipes using various Tohato products on the official Tohato website!)
