This is one of the more creative and interesting social activations we've seen of late.
In order to promote Snickers chocolate bars, and working with the brand's "You're Not You When You're Hungry" tagline, Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne has developed a 'Hungerithm' - a 'hunger algorithm' which monitors the mood of the internet and adjusts the price of a Snickers bar accordingly.
It works like this:
The Hungerithm uses a 3,000 word lexicon and monitors around 14,000 social media posts (mostly Twitter) each day. Based on automated sentiment analysis, the system then determines whether the internet is happy and doesn't really need a chocolate break, or angry, in which case, a Snickers break is definitely required.
As the sentiment rises and falls, so too does the price of a Snickers bar - the angrier the web is, the cheaper the price gets. At any time, users can 'lock in' the price in the Hungerithm app and head to their nearest 7-Eleven store, where they can use an in-app bar code to purchase a 50g Snickers or Max Choc bar at that price.
The Hungerithm's updated more than 140 times a day, with the price dropping by up to 82% on days of particularly poor sentiment. If your favourite 'Game of Thrones' character meets his or her demise, for example, you can bet that the Hungerithm will be impacted, making it a good time to lock in your Snickers price.
The campaign's a great alignment of online and offline mediums offering a level of fun and interactivity, while it uses social data in a unique, creative way, which will no doubt attract attention.
The Hungerithm's currently only available in Australia, though Snickers is already looking to make the app more widely available. Australian users will be able to use the Hungerithm to ease the world's frustrations till the end of June.