Hostess Brands has named Charlotte’s Tattoo Projects their social media agency of record. I asked Buffy Kelly, president of Tattoo Projects, the dollar size of the account, but she won’t tell. When I asked if the award winning ad agency was hiring to staff the account, Buffy told me “Yes, but only a few.”
Hostess is the mothership of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Hostess Cupcakes and more. The snacks you hate to love.
Tattoo Projects won the account without a pitch because the agency showcased their chops when Hostess tapped them for a project – a campaign to announce the launch of Deep Fried Twinkies. Yum.
Tattoo came up with the idea “Everything good is even better deep fried.” They created eight videos for the campaigns. The first seven videos depicted the deep-frying of everyday objects like a watch, pool ball and iPhone.
The videos were clearly building to something and fans on the social pages of Hostess were super curious about what the heck was going on. Then Tattoo Projects released the final video unveiling a Deep Fried Twinkie.
The campaign dominated and Hostess loved the results.
Tattoo Projects will enlist long-time partner Philadelphia-based Harmelin Media for paid media strategy and work closely with Hostess’ PR agency of record, LAK Public Relations. Interesting to note that Tattoo is going out of Charlotte for paid social – there’s a huge opportunity for a vertical agency to grow this line of business in Charlotte.
“We wanted a true partner to work with and develop a strong social media presence for the Hostess brand,” said Burke Raine, Hostess chief marketing officer. “We chose Tattoo Projects because they are a bold and energetic company that delivers great creative and drives sales.”
Conference Room at Tattoo Projects
“We are honored to be selected by Hostess as its new agency of record,” Kelly said. “We share a mindset of having fun, and creating something that makes people happy. We couldn’t be more proud; and seriously – who wouldn’t want to work on the Twinkies account?!”
Tattoo Projects currently has six open job positions on their agency website: account executive, senior art director, graphic designer, junior motion designer/animator, senior account executive, senior motion designer/animator and interns. Oh, and here’s a full tour of their gorgeous office.
