Sonic Creates Square Shaped Milkshakes Exclusively for Instagram

To capitalize on the audience interest around the upcoming Coachella Festival, Sonic is releasing a range of square-shaped milkshakes. Why square? Because Instagram is focussed on square shapes, and the campaign is aimed purely at the Instagram audience – the shakes are designed for Instagram, can be bought on Instagram and will be delivered to consumers at Coachella free of change, with the only cost being that you post a picture of the shake to your Instagram account.

As noted in the video, the square shakes campaign is aimed at promoting Sonic's new 'Creamery Shakes' products which were introduced last month and feature premium flavors and ingredients. In order to boost awareness of the new offering amongst a younger audience, Sonic's working with Instagram influencers, including chef Christine Flynn, and, as noted, will deliver the shakes to people at Coachella Base Camp free of charge, using geo-fencing to locate people who click on the 'Shop Now' button on the Instagram images.

It's an interesting campaign for various reasons.

For one, Sonic's working exclusively with a specific social platform, aiming to boost the appeal of their products – and the shareability of their content – by honing in on one, specific platform, rather than trying to reach across all, with Instagram likely to be one of the most used social apps during the event. By providing users with great looking, highly 'Instagrammable' content, Sonic will no doubt generate a heap of impressions through this activation, the reach of which will offset the associated costs on their part in giving away their products for free.

They're also working with Instagram's improved discoverability features – in the middle of last year, Instagram introduced a range of new ways for people to discover relevant content around events and hashtagged conversations.

It's pretty safe to assume that Coachella's going to feature high on that list, which will boost the exposure of Sonic's milkshake images even further.

In addition, the strategists behind the campaign have taken the time to understand what users want out of Instagram, what users on that platform will best respond to. As part of this, they're working with influential creators on both the backgrounds and the shakes themselves, but they're also giving users something that has a high visual appeal, that fits into what people want to see on Instagram and will stand out in feeds.

It's a clever strategy, and one which works on several levels – no doubt it's taken a lot of time and effort to put together, but you can bet that square milkshakes are going to be a big hit at Coachella, and will lead to a significant boost in interest for the new products as a result.

And one last interesting note on the campaign – in an interview with AdWeek, Sonic's president and chief marketing officer, Todd Smith noted that selling more milkshakes wasn't necessarily the main objective of the campaign.

"We're looking at adding Instagram followers and building a community. We want to push our brand into spaces where it hasn't necessarily been before." 

Another interesting element to consider in what's a truly social activation. Wonder what the cross-correlation is between fans of both Guns N' Roses and milkshakes?    

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Original source: Sonic Creates Square Shaped Milkshakes Exclusively for Instagram.
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