Creative Outcomes | Behind Viewer Enthusiasm for “Motorcycle Gang” from Twix

Mars has launched a new spot, posing a question that many of its fans have asked on the Prodtastic Twix bar: “Is it just a cookie in disguise?”

In this campaign, Mars positions the snack as a unique “cookie” offering in the chocolate candy category—the best of both worlds. It shines a light on the brand’s distinct flavors and textures.

Here’s what iSpot’s Creative Assessment platform revealed on actual viewer response to the ad.

The Details:

• The :15 “Motorcycle Gang” earned excellent breakthrough (Attention and Likeability) through the engaging characters and Prodtastic Twix bar itself, ranking in the candy and gum category’s top decile on every consumer performance measure (past year): 
  
  
  • Viewers appreciated the Change in direction and the very Funny storyline, which found a strong audience among the target 16-20 audience as well as other viewer segments.
  
  
  • The Twix brand was central to the creative (with 84% unaided recall), while 71% reported increased intent (+10 pts vs norm).
    

• Second-by-second trace reflects very high and early engagement for the :15 “Motorcycle Gang” even among the difficult-to-engage 16-20-year-old audience, vs the :30 “Disguise” spot.

• “Motorcycle Gang” landed positively across consumers of chocolate candy as well as other candies and gums and a healthy 62% of all sentiment on the ad was positive—indicating broad appeal:
  
  
  • Positive sentiment reflected the engaging, creative, and humorous concept as well as love for—and increased desire for—Twix.

Sample comments on “Motorcycle Gang” :15

“I think the way this ad was presented got my attention and was very humorous. It was something that is not usually seen and is different.”
Female 36-49

“Bikers + candy = easy win. Who doesn’t love candy and bikes? Like come on.”
Male 21-35

“It was more interesting than most advertisements tend to be.”
Male 16-20

“The advert was very eye-catching, from the solemn music to the products being advertised. It’s a great and brilliant ad.”
Female 21-35

“I loved everything about this ad, the product, the video, and production quality. Made me want to buy Twix.”
Female 16-20

“The ad was funny. A little different for this brand. It made me hungry. I’m craving Twix now.”
Male 36-49

• Being an election year, it is prudent to measure response across political party affiliations, which confirmed broad media programming is appropriate:
  
  
  • The :15 was also a solid hit across ethnicities.
    

• Response to the :15 “Motorcycle Gang” was notably stronger than the brand’s :30 “Disguise,” with the short-form ad ranking second among candy and gum ads over the past year in overall response:
  
  
  • While several of Mars’ M&M’s spots were also top performers, “Motorcycle Gang” trailed only Reese’s “Say It, Then Eat It” in driving consumer intent.
    
    
  • As such, there is opportunity for Mars to focus media spend on the :15 creative to both maximize intent and optimize their budget.
    
    
  • Our iSpot media measurement reports 109.6M national linear Impressions delivered on “Motorcycle Gang” over the two weeks ending 6/18/24, with no airings for the :30 creative at this time.
    

• Twix ranked 14th among candy & gum ads in national linear Impressions delivered over the 14 days ending 6/18/24:
  
  
  • Given the exceedingly positive response to “Motorcycle Gang,” consideration of additional budget against this spot to establish a stronger SOV could be warranted for the brand.
    

Ineffective creative, even if delivered to the right audience, results in missed opportunity and performance shortfalls. Great creative delivered poorly also results in failed campaigns. 

Schedule a demo to find out how your brand can partner with iSpot to quickly solve both challenges simultaneously, delivering high-performing creative while boosting the effectiveness of planning and in-market execution to achieve—and outperform—campaign objectives.