Snickers rewards rookie mistakes this NFL season
To amp up even more buzz around football season, Snickers has brought back its ‘Rookie Mistake of the Year’ program to celebrate fans’ biggest blunders and missteps.
Ever ‘called in sick’ to a family gathering, only to foolishly post a pic with friends on Instagram? Rookie mistake. This football season, Snickers, the ‘Official Chocolate Bar Sponsor of the NFL,’ is restoring the honor of fans everywhere by rewarding their biggest rookie mistakes with prizes and Super Bowl tickets, and even recreating some stories with NFL stars.
Starting today, fans can submit videos, photo or written examples of their rookie mistakes to Snickers’ website or on social using the #SNICKERSROOKIEMISTAKE hashtag. The most hilarious and relatable submissions will be highlighted throughout the NFL regular season, giving fans a chance to be featured across all Snickers platforms, and will also be rewarded with autographed merchandise and NFLshop.com gift cards. At the season’s end, a panel of NFL experts will deliberate and select one ‘Snickers Rookie Mistake of the Year,’ with the winner receiving two tickets to Super Bowl LVII in Arizona, as well as the opportunity to celebrate on the field after the game.
“The Snickers ‘Rookie Mistake of the Year’ program is back ... to once again reward fans for sharing their rookie mistakes with us,” said Michelle Deignan, senior marketing director at Mars Wrigley. “As the ‘Official Chocolate Bar Sponsor of the NFL,’ Snickers continues to show up as the satisfying solution to make sure rookie mistakes don’t happen twice, while amplifying sporting experiences for fans all season.”
Snickers bars everywhere also now have new packaging with codes. Later in the season, those codes will link consumers to an augmented reality (AR) experience featuring Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver Stefon Diggs and a ‘magic football’ that acts like a Magic 8 Ball, where fans can ask Diggs a question or submit a rookie mistake of their own.
Diggs, along with NFL running back Najee Harris, will also recreate fan-submitted rookie mistakes in a series of videos. The debut in the series, which goes live today, shows Diggs recreating the story of one fan who left a game early to beat traffic, only to miss a team’s epic comeback in the fourth quarter. “Last year’s entries were hilarious, but I know the fans have more they’ve been holding back,” Diggs said in a statement.
Campaign content will run exclusively online across social channels. Creative and strategic support came from BBDO NY, Weber Shandwick, Mediacom, The Hive, MKTG and The Mars Agency.