• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, December 19, 2024

At one point in 2023, the Twix social-media team was looking for a connection to influencer MommaCusses, a snarky, sarcastic TikTok-er who is both a millennial mom and a lover of snacks. As part of an effort to send her a new Twix product to share, “we DM’d her and also accidentally followed her,” said  Ashley Gill, vice president of brand and content at Mars Wrigley, North America, making MommaCusses the first and only TikTok account followed by the massive brand.

The inadvertent follow came to light recently with a funny, biting and negative review of a new Twix product, shaped like Santa’s head. “You have one job to do, and it is to make sticks,” MommaCusses said, devoting much of the scolding video to ways this unbalanced Twix product messed up the ratios of cookie, chewy and chocolate in her mouth.

The influencer also objected to packaging with only one Santa from a brand that is all about two-ness. When her video went viral, Gill said, “we decided to create a strong cross-functional collaborative effort.” Working with Adam&EveDDB, Mars’ in-house social and studio teams, “we just brainstormed this idea of how to engage MommaCusses and her community in a really fun way.” 

The result is a TikTok video, complete with old-school voice anonymization, where the Twix social media team admits the gaffe, asking for help finding that second Twix follower. The results, Gill said, amazed the team. “Almost immediately, we had all kinds of views and engagement and more than 3,500 comments. It was awesome to see the community responding to this ask and giving us many creative ideas about why they should be the next Twix follow.”

The company is currently combing through the nominations and watching how the interest has spun into additional content, with MommaCusses answering plenty of the sillier questions with her trademark snark. No, she doesn’t work for Twix. No, she didn’t invent Twix. (It was created in 1967 in Britain. “Do I sound British? Or look like I’m in my 70s?”) She even endures having her accomplishments mansplained by someone insisting she owes her social-media career to the candy brand.

“Her responses have been really, really funny,” Gill said, “and a wonderful example of co-creation with our fans and our communities.”

Besides, people sharing their mistakes – even a brand’s media team – are part of the charm of social media platforms. “Mistakes are a very human behavior, and we want to have some fun along the way.”

Gill said these kinds of social-media one-offs are something Mars will begin to use more, working within various communities. “The question is, how we can co-create with our friends and fans these kinds of playful interactions that add value and entertainment. What will they find engaging?”

And while many marketers might say “collaborative” efforts often translate to “time-consuming” -- potentially problematic as companies look to cut costs with greater efficiencies -- Gill said that the answer is a more significant emphasis on agility. “We're very lucky that our brands are often in conversations with consumers and culture at large,” she said. “It sounds like there were many teams involved in this, and there were. But because it was such a natural fit, we got a quick yes, and pulling it together wasn’t too complex or draining.”