Lucas Candy – Skate Tour

Challenge

Lucas®, a Hispanic candy company, distributed by M&M/Mars was looking for a way to market their products to the changing tastes of Hispanic youths. Since many of today’s Hispanic children are born in the USA, their tastes and purchasing habits differ from their parents. Young Hispanic children’s interests are much different than their parents, as well. M&M/Mars was faced with the challenge of trying to reach the Hispanic youth with an authentic message for the Lucas brand in specific Hispanic markets.

Solution

Working directly with the client and their agency, it was determined that a major area of interest for Hispanic youth was skateboarding. It is an urban activity that does not require much investment to get started and differs drastically from soccer, in that you don’t need other people to participate in the activity. It is also a sport of convenience, since you can skateboard just about anywhere.

After initial discussions, it was determined that the best activation would involve creation of the Lucas Skate Tour®. The events would all take place at Lucas retail locations in Los Angeles and Houston markets. The Lucas® Skate Tour elements would involve securing Hispanic professional skateboard athletes that would teach young Hispanics “how to skateboard” in our Learn To Ride sessions. The professionals would also showcase their skills in demos throughout the day. Each of the pros were bilingual in English and Spanish. All of these activations would be capped off by an amateur skateboard competition in each market. Each event will have relevant music and product giveaways from the entire Lucas® line of candy. The entire program would be leveraged with media buys in each local market prior to each event, as well as a targeted website destination build out featuring screensavers and wallpaper that showcased the athletes and their Lucas® affiliation. Authenticity was the key in this promotion and Sandbox was able to provide that to Lucas® and its agency. Skateboarding is one of the fastest growing sports among Hispanic youth.

Results

• The Lucas Skate Tour® drew over 1000 Hispanic youths during the 4 week period of the promotion
• Activation in-store netted increased sales and awareness of the Lucas® brand by almost 20% among Hispanic consumers
• Photo and press opportunities rounded out each of the events and created a drive to retail for the client
• Skateboard pros Danny Montoya, Justin Reynolds, Felix Arguelles, Emmanuel Guzman and John Duran were great at engaging the Hispanic kids. All of the athletes were great role models and really worked well with the kids
• The Hispanic professional athletes gave the event authenticity, as well as a chance for the kids to aspire to do something great with their lives

Success Elements