{"id":4426202,"date":"2026-03-06T23:41:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/?post_type=case&p=4426202"},"modified":"2026-03-13T08:17:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:17:33","slug":"turning-snack-dust-into-street-cred-for-cheetos-uk","status":"publish","type":"case","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-uki\/case\/turning-snack-dust-into-street-cred-for-cheetos-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning snack dust into street cred for Cheetos UK"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\tPepsico<\/p>Turning snack dust into street cred for Cheetos UK<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t(  Services  )\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
  • \n\t\t\t\t\t\tBrand & Media\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
  • \n\t\t\t\t\t\tCommerce\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\tIn the US, Cheetos has woven itself into the cultural fabric as a brand synonymous with playful rebellion, fashion collabs, and Gen Z’s irreverent spirit. <\/p>
    However, this bold cultural cache that the $3 billion brand has cultivated among young consumers hasn\u2019t quite translated to the UK.\u00a0

    To address this gap, PepsiCo created a strategy that was as bold as it was ambitious. Within three years, their goal is to grow the Cheetos brand to \u00a3100M by making it a cult Gen Z brand tied to fashion, culture, and playful mischief.\u00a0

    As PepsiCo\u2019s creative and influencer partner, our challenge was to help fundamentally reimagine the Cheetos brand in the UK and to do so in a way that felt earned, organic, and impossible to ignore for a famously hard-to-reach generation.

    This wasn’t about incremental growth. It was about fundamentally repositioning a snack brand as a cultural force.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tLearning what makes Gen Z tick<\/h2>\n\tThe real challenge wasn’t just about awareness; it was about authenticity. We couldn’t just tell<\/em> Gen Z that Cheetos were part of UK culture. We had to make it true<\/em>. We had to embed the brand into their world in a way that felt organic, earned, and impossible to ignore.

    Two key insights informed our strategy:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • Gen Z spends 12.4 hours per week on TikTok, more than triple the amount of time they spend on Instagram or Snapchat. In this way, TikTok is truly where everything happens for this generation. It’s where subcultures are born, trends explode overnight, and communities form around the most unexpected things.<\/li>
  • 92% of Gen Z<\/a> value being \u201cauthentic and true to oneself\u201d as important. This passion for authenticity and identity transcends all aspects of their lives<\/a>, especially in Gen Z\u2019s fashion choices.\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\nFollowing a creative sprint we held with TikTok and PepsiCo marketing, we settled on a strategy that was radical in its simplicity: create an authentic fashion moment that felt real (not manufactured), then let it ripple through TikTok’s interconnected communities.

    To break through to Gen Z, we needed to break through on TikTok. And, to break through on TikTok, we needed to make our mark on fashion. Literally.

    We decided to lean into \u201cCheetle.\u201d The deliciously cheesy, bright orange dust that not only gets on your fingers<\/em> when you eat Cheetos\u2026 it also gets on your clothes<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\tThe genius of cheese-dusted streetwear<\/h2>\n\tOur benchmarks were to reach 60% of 18-24 year-olds and shift perceptions around Cheetos and fashion. This would be Cheetos’ first-ever UK campaign and PepsiCo’s largest influencer initiative to date.\u00a0

    To accomplish this, we went all-in on TikTok. No multi-platform spray and pray. This was about showing up where Gen Z actually<\/em> lives and speaking their language with content that felt native to the platform.

    At the heart of our campaign were     Navinder Nangla<\/a>, the British-Punjabi graffiti artist & designer, and fashion icon Aly Meghani,<\/a> who boasts 1.3 million TikTok followers. Unlike many creator partnerships, however, the pair didn\u2019t act just as faces for the campaign. Navinder and Aly had already established a creative relationship via their social media presences and, from the start, we worked together to incorporate their “mischievous genius” into the creative DNA of the campaign.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\tThe campaign\u2019s story unfolded in a series of social moments designed to feel spontaneous and real, a feeling that the real-life friendship between Navinder and Aly enhanced even further.\u00a0

    In the heart of London’s creative scene in Soho, Aly casually wipes Cheetle dust on his t-shirt; a relatable, messy moment we’ve all experienced. Navinder spots it and has a spark of artistic inspiration.     In a “caught on camera” style video<\/a>, the street artist creates a bespoke piece of wearable art directly onto Aly’s shirt, transforming the accidental Cheetle stain into intentional fashion.

    To increase reach, both creators share the moment from their perspectives. Aly shows it to his 1.3 million followers.     Navinder documents the creative process<\/a>. The series culminates in Navinder’s “Pashion 4 Cheetoz” tee drop,<\/a> a limited collection that blends creativity with humour and relevance in all the right ways.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tTurning corner shop runs into cultural currency<\/h2>\n\tIn a nod to Gen Z\u2019s seamless blend of physical and digital living, we took the online buzz into the real world by tapping into drop-style hype culture.

    Navinder announced the limited tee drop on Instagram, then released it via an exclusive pin drop at\u00a0    a corner shop location in Brick Lane<\/a>\u2026 for one hour only.

    To amplify the corner shop hype even further, we turned to the people who could genuinely make this moment resonate: 31 fashion-forward Gen Z TikTok creators who were already part of the same cultural ecosystem as Navinder and Aly.\u00a0

    These creators weren\u2019t picked at random. Each was handpicked, deliberately chosen for their prominence in the fashion scene on TikTok and the genuine connection they had with their audiences. Collectively, they all shared the same authentic passion for fashion, excitement about art and culture, and the kind of creative confidence that thrives on out-of-the-box ideas.

    Next, we invited the creators to flex their creative juices with a refreshingly simple brief: Style Navinder\u2019s tee your way, head to a corner shop of your choosing, grab a bag of Cheetos, and\u2014 yes\u2014wipe that trademark Cheetle dust on yourself to drive home the message.\u00a0

    From there, we got out of their way.

    This trust proved essential. While the client was understandably nervous about handing over creative control like this, we reassured them that this approach was exactly what would make the campaign work. And it did.\u00a0

    Rather than forcing these creators into a rigid template, we gave them the freedom to express their individual styles. The result? Over 35 pieces of content that felt genuine, diverse, and true to both the creators as well as Cheeto\u2019s trademark sense of mischief. The comments reflected this too, with audiences celebrating the range of styles on display and the authenticity each creator brought to the table.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n
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    \n\t\t\t\t\t22%\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t

    \n\t\t\t\t\tad recall\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t

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    \n\t\t\t\t\t11.3M\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t

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    \n\t\t\t\t\t+3.3%\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t

    \n\t\t\t\t\tuplift in fashion keyword association\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\tA snack culture that’s ready to keep growing<\/h2>\n\tOur work helped drive a 50% year-to-date sales uplift for Cheetos, a remarkable start toward that \u00a3100M ambition, especially considering we were working with a relatively low marketing budget.

    We also achieved:<\/p>\n\n\t

  • 22% ad recall\u00a0<\/strong>vs. 8% benchmark, which we achieved without using any standard toolkit assets.<\/li>
  • 11.3M reach<\/strong>\u00a0with 80% landing in the 18-34 demographic. Most campaigns are 18+, multi-platform. We went hyper-targeted to 18-34 on TikTok only and drove incredibly strong reach with the audience that actually matters<\/li>
  • 3.35 second average playtime view<\/strong>, nearly double the snacks average of 1.82 seconds.<\/li>
  • +3.3% uplift in fashion keyword association<\/strong>, indicative of how we literally changed how Gen Z perceives the brand.<\/li><\/ul>\n\nMost importantly, the campaign perfectly encapsulates a burgeoning new approach to social media marketing. Not just for Cheetos, but for how any major brand can authentically enter youth culture.

    Our strategy was all about creating cultural currency. Making Cheetos something Gen Z wanted to wear, talk about, and be part of. In this way, we made Gen Z not just\u00a0consumers<\/em>\u00a0of Cheetos, but\u00a0participants<\/em>\u00a0in a brand-new Cheetos culture that will continue to grow and evolve with the brand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n
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    Translating hardware into human terms<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t

    View Work<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t

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