To boost sales of Stride despite declining category gum sales in the American market.

First we looked hard at why US teenagers were buying less chewing gum. Smartphones now took up a large percentage of the ‘attention’ formerly devoted to gum. Rather than fighting against the use of smartphones, we decided to embrace it by creating a new ‘gum-chewing occasion’ for Stride’s teenage, smartphone-addicted demographic.

We launched ‘Gumulon’, the world’s first chew-controlled iPhone game. The gameplay was completely controlled by the movement of the chewer’s jaw – the more gum you chewed, the more actions you made, the better you controlled the game.

We released a TV ad and gameplay video, along with a PR and mobile media push, to get the idea of chew-controlled gaming out into the public. We targeted gaming events and websites, getting the game featured on their channels. We also took advantage of Apple’s Game Centre functionality, which allows you to challenge friends to beat your score in-game.

To keep Stride at the heart of Gumulon, players were encouraged to unlock bonus levels by scanning in gum packs.

Gumulon achieved over one million play sessions, which adds up to 4.5 years of chewing. The game has helped Stride drive re-appraisal and renewed interest in the brand from new and existing consumers, in a category otherwise in decline.