Tostitos turns tweets into recipes

Tostitos Canada wants consumers to know there’s more to its chips than a salsa pairing.

The PepsiCo-owned brand has launched a Twitter-based campaign that lets consumers turn their tweets into recipes. When Twitter users tag @TostitosCanada, hashtag an ingredient, and #OpenUpTheFun, the brand responds within minutes with a recipe featuring that ingredient. Those who tweet #mozzarella, for instance, will receive a recipe for Tostitos Buffalo Mozzarella Bites.

“We know that our heavy users use recipes a lot with Tostitos, so leveraging that insight, we want to show our other consumers that there are so many different ways you can use Tostitos versus just chip and dip,” said Susan Irving, senior director – core brands, PepsiCo Foods Canada.

Tostitos® Multigrain Rounds chips + cream cheese + food colouring = bug bites your kids want! http://t.co/F6oCpH6Xsv pic.twitter.com/pIJ7ZJ5OA2

— Tostitos Canada (@TostitosCanada) August 14, 2015

The custom program developed by Twitter uses an auto-responder to generate the recipes. On the back end, 300 ingredients were put into the system and can generate 335 different possible recipes. If a consumer tweets an ingredient that’s not in the database, they’ll receive the message, “Great ingredient but try something else!”

According to Twitter, one in five Canadians tweet while shopping. “We also know that people tweet all the time about food and recipes, so it’s a very natural behaviour on our platform,” said Jamie Michaels, head of brand strategy at Twitter Canada. “This was about taking that to the next level and putting Tostitos front and centre.”

The campaign is targeted at Tostitos’ core consumer: moms. “The Twitter platform and recipe platform is a great way to communicate with her, especially when she’s in the grocery store,” said Irving.

First week of Fall making you crave seasonal faves? Try these Apple Crumble Mini’s http://t.co/19MaEpyCUz pic.twitter.com/teaI6rK1mS

— Tostitos Canada (@TostitosCanada) September 24, 2015

“The one thing we like about this campaign is it’s not just an awareness driver, it’s actually a way to engage with consumers.”

The campaign will be supported online through promoted Tweets, through an interactive recipe generator tool on Tostitos.ca and AllRecipes.com, and through in-store POS nationally.

This article first appeared on MarketingMag.ca