Snickers Helps NFL Fans Bring Their Teams Good Luck
Mars Inc.'s Snickers brought back its football-themed “Rookie Mistake of the Year” program for the third straight year, helping fans avoid embarrassing rookie mistakes.
This year, the official chocolate sponsor of the National Football League added a wrinkle to the campaign that particularly focuses on one unfortunate rookie mistake: fans not having a lucky item to support their team. To help underprepared fans, Snickers on Sept. 12 launched the “Snickers Luck Shop,” an online store that will drop “lucky” items and gear from Snickers NFL team partners throughout the season, according to a media release.
[Also Read: Snickers Brings 'Rookie Mistake' to Life]
The first drop was a limited-edition “Lucky Snickers bars” kit, and consumers/fans can enter online for a chance to purchase the kit. Snickers says these bars are lucky because they were stashed within the NFL headquarters in New York, “soaking up luck” in a room filled with Super Bowl rings and official NFL honors trophies, per the release. Each kit includes:
- One Lucky Snickers bar wrapped in dedicated program packaging,
- One official certificate of luck, and
- Six regular Snickers bars.
Proceeds from the product drops will go to the NFL Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing grants to fund football programs and resources to players at all levels and communities across the country.
"Having partnered with the league for nearly 20 years, we're excited to have another season underway," Martin Terwilliger, senior director of marketing, Mars Wrigley, said in the release. "Building on our current Rookie Mistake of the Year campaign, the Snickers Luck Shop is another fun way we are extending the program and further engaging with our consumers and NFL fans everywhere. We've loved curating the online store with our NFL team partners and can't wait to offer fans the relief of having a lucky item in-hand, while inspiring moments of everyday happiness throughout the season."
The brand also kicked off its annual Rookie Mistake of the Year sweepstakes, which will reward fans who share examples of their own football-related rookie mistakes. Fans can submit their rookie mistakes at Snickers.com/RookieMistake for a chance to win prizes throughout the NFL season. One entry will also be crowned the Snickers Rookie Mistake of the Year and win two tickets to Super Bowl LVIII, where they will be able to experience the celebration on the field after the game.
To promote this year’s program, Snickers recruited NFL team partners to ask and share the rookie mistakes of their own players. Video advertisements presented by Snickers feature players, such as Jimmy Garoppolo of the Las Vegas Raiders or multiple players from the Philadelphia Eagles, sharing their unfortunate or embarrassing mistakes with fans. The silly videos, which clock in at about one minute each, are shared via respective football teams’ official social media channels and reshared from Snickers social accounts.
Last year, Snickers rolled out an augmented reality experience to its Rookie Mistake of the Year campaign. The internet-based AR experience — created by The Mars Agency using technology from Blippar — leveraged QR codes on Snickers' seasonal NFL packaging that encouraged consumers to scan and share their rookie mistake (e.g., forgetting tickets or leaving the game too early) for a chance to win various prizes.