Inside Reese’s explosive innovation campaign

Coming off the heels of an extremely successful innovation, the REESE’S Caramel Big Cup - which became the #1 confectionary innovation in 2024 after its own Super Bowl moment – the brand had a high bar to reach with the Chocolate Lava Big Cup. To deliver the brand’s objective, this new campaign needed to immediately drive high levels of purchase for the new Chocolate Lava Big Cup while maintaining sales of the original REESE’S Peanut Butter Cup.

A Satirical Approach to Clear Confusion

For Erich and Kallman, the answer came in a satirical way - showcasing tourists at a real volcano, craving real lava. Frustrated park rangers can’t understand why confused tourists want to eat hot, molten lava so badly. These tourists clearly must be mistaken and instead want the ooey-gooey chocolate lava in REESE’S Chocolate Lava Big Cups. This PSA-style campaign is meant to clear up that REESE’S Chocolate Lava is delicious, not actual lava.

REESE’S Peanut Butter Cups have some of the most distinctive assets in its category, so maintaining its famous orange color and showing the delicious product were important elements to integrate. The “Don’t Eat Lava” ad builds intensity while ensuring brand recognition by flashing from the chaos of the volcano action to the REESE’S orange world throughout the spot, allowing for an entertaining story while maintaining focus on the true star – REESE’S Cups.

A Multi-Phase Launch Strategy

Once the “Don’t Eat Lava” campaign was created, everyone committed to consistency. Everything was all about the volcano before, during, and after the Big Game. Using a powerful, multi-phase launch, REESE’S anchored its Chocolate Lava marketing in volcano-centered experiences to generate awareness, excitement, and purchase intent among fans. Consumer testing indicated that the most entertaining moment of the ad was when the Grandma shouts “It’s Lava Time, Baby!”, so this phrase was integrated into various activations along the way.

Phase 1: Make Fans Curious

• Attention-Grabbing Teasers Across Paid Media: We dropped two teasers to hype up our fans, placing media buys across TV, digital, and social channels. The teasers hinted towards the campaign, featuring memorable characters like our lava enthusiast Grandma, and included striking visuals of an erupting volcano that had our audience guessing what Reese’s could possibly be crafting next.
• Big Game Participation Announcement: We announced REESE’S return to the Big Game through an exclusive feature with AdAge, driving early excitement with key customers and trade media.

Phase 2: Make Fans Excited

• New Heights Podcast with Jason & Travis Kelce: Partnering with two super fans, the Kelce Brothers, REESE’S announced its return to the Big Game on their New Heights podcast with sponsored episodes throughout NFL playoff season.
• Barstool Sports integrations: REESE’S partnered with Barstool Sports for “Lava Time” integrations across their audio, social, and video platforms.
• They Call It Late Night episode integrations: REESE’S partnered with Jason Kelce on his brand-new ESPN late show It’s Called Late Night, integrating lava and volcano-themed executions and brand mentions across multiple episodes.
• High-Profile Earned Media Engagements: Excited by the teasers, Today Show selected REESE’S to kick off their Super Bowl preview series with an exclusive first look at the spot. Media excitement was strong as REESE’S engaged with trade, food, and mainstream news outlets such as USA Today, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter.

Phase 3: Make Fans Talk

• Volcano Vending Machine & Influencers: REESE’S brought the fun to NOLA with a voice-activated Volcano Vending Machine. Consumers were prompted to watch a clip of REESE’S Big Game ad and replicate their own version of the line “It’s Lava Time, Baby!” to receive a REESE’S Chocolate Lava Big Cup. NFL players including Kirk Cousins, Jamyr Gibbs, and Fred Warner participated, posting their experience on social.
• Barstool Sports on Bourbon Street: REESE’S sponsored live Barstool podcasts, complete with custom volcano sets and product-focused content that was amplified across their social platforms.
• New Heights Party: As the sponsor of the most exclusive invite in NOLA, REESE’S brought lava to the party with flavor-infused cocktails, branded games, and the Volcano Vending Machine, driving connection with athletes, celebrities, and influencers.
• Big Game Moment: REESE’S crowned the “Don’t Eat Lava” campaign by airing the hero :30 ad immediately before the much-anticipated halftime show, the highest-viewed moment of the game.
• Pre-and-Post-Game Continuity: In the days before and weeks after the Big Game, REESE’S utilized the ad and various cutdown versions of the creative in paid media to drive momentum, including high-reach takeovers on TikTok, Meta, and Reddit.

Phase 4: Make Fans Buy

• Leading up to and right after the Big Game, REESE’S reached fans in their moment of purchase. Retail Interception: REESE’S partnered with key retailers to ensure strong merchandising presence before and after the Big Game. Premium display presence at brick & mortar and integrated paid omnichannel ads drove awareness during final purchase consideration. Digital Presence: REESE’S developed custom Lava landing pages and CRM emails across owned-and-operated platforms driving fans to purchase.

Explosive Results for the REESE’S Brand

The integrated and consistent approach led to explosive results for the REESE’S brand!

• Impressive Impressions: With over 600 million paid media impressions, REESE’S maximized its exposure before, during, and after the Big Game. By placing our buy directly before the halftime show, REESE’S gained exposure to 138 million viewers, +5% vs. the game’s average.
• Earned Excitement: REESE’S gained 892 media placements, driving 12.5 billion earned impressions. Media coverage was widely positive, with 96% of coverage positive or neutral in sentiment.
• Online Ownership: The “Don’t Eat Lava” campaign drove over 500,000 views to the Chocolate Lava campaign landing page. Product locator volume improved 276% vs. our 2025 average, and product searches increased 3550% across Super Bowl week.
• Real-Time Recognition: Top industry firm System1 conducted overnight research that signaled REESE’S as a winner with consumers. Its testing recognized REESE’S as its #1 Spike Rating performer indicating exceptional short-term sales potential driven by strength of brand recognition and intensity of emotional response, with their SVP indicating our ad as “the biggest Spike Rating in Super Bowl history”. REESE’S had the second highest “fluency” score, measuring strength and speed of brand

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