This STUDIOS-Created Campaign for Sour Strips Hits the Sweet Spot

October 15, 2024

At STUDIOS, the in-house creative agency at OUTFRONT, we pride ourselves on helping brands find their voices. But what about brands that are already loud and proud about who they are?

Advertisers don’t need to reinvent the wheel to take advantage of the OOH-specific expertise of our nationwide team of 50+ talented artists and designers. That’s why when candy brand Sour Strips wanted to announce a new addition to its product line, it enlisted STUDIOS.

Ironically based in the Houston, Texas suburb of Sugarland, Sour Strips was a small but established brand with a presence on the shelves of retailers like Target and Texaco. With a tagline of “sour candy that doesn’t suck” and a visual identity built around “weird, angry fruit characters,” this was a brand as bold as the “extreme sour coating” on its product.

Expanding from belts to bites was a subtle extension, so the challenge here was to balance the something-new statement within the framework of the brand’s existing identity. That’s where the STUDIOS discovery comes in. We asked Emma O’Beirne, the graphic designer who worked on the campaign, to walk us through the process.

“We got to go to their office and sit down with Maxx Chewning, the guy behind it all,” recalled Emma. “He’s a fitness junkie who grew up in Virginia loving candy. Then when he moved down here, he just wanted to combine his love because there wasn’t a candy brand that represented being cool and hip. They do a lot of interactions with their fan base and have a pretty heavy hold on people knowing who they are.”


“Sour Strips already had a really strong brand identity, which can be a little nerve-wracking,” Emma continued. “But just being able to sit down with them, communicate with them how they want to be represented, and make sure that they know you're there to help them, that you're not trying to take over these campaigns, but only elevate what they already have existing.”

“Maxx really trusted us, trusted that we were the out of home specialists. What we offer isn't necessarily always going to be something extravagant, but it's just the information and the education on what out of home is and what's successful in it.”

“We're not here to overstep. We're only here to iterate, help elevate the message they're already sending and show them how it translates to OOH. There's such a huge misconception around billboards; even these strong brands think they need all these things like a phone number that they typically see. But if you’re a pre-existing brand, all you need is a picture and a logo. And it can go miles.” 

Of course, the creative on the billboard is only half a solution. The other part of the puzzle is finding the right billboards to put the creative on. For insight into that, we turned to OUTFRONT Senior Account Executive Jennifer Munoz.

“Maxx didn't want to be somewhere saturated with billboards. He wanted to stand out; he wanted right-hand reads,” Jennifer explained. “Some people really don't care which side of the freeway they're on, but he was very particular. He wanted right-hand reads with great visibility in high-traffic areas.”


In this case, who was in the audience was less important than how many. “It's really hard with candy. It's anyone. could be from kids all the way to adults,” Jennifer told us. “So without any strong target demos, it was just really location. Those high-traffic areas where you sit in traffic – Galleria and I-59. Those were ideal for him.”

A four-week flight on two bulletin-format Houston billboards was all it took to make a splash, in part because Maxx was savvy enough to amplify their reach by seizing on the power of social out of home (#sOOH).

Because in addition to being a candy entrepreneur, Maxx Chewning is also a YouTube sensation with over 383,000 subscribers, whom he activated by taking a drone to the billboards, filming their installation and the finished product! That video earned over 54,000 views and over 3,900 likes (SOURCE: YouTube).


“What they did with their own drone and unveiling of the of the billboard, they just took their brand to another level,” said Jennifer. “They proved that they're not only on social media like some brands. So OOH made sense for the new product. Taking it to a billboard, but also showcasing that on their social media – that was huge.”

“Now I see them in Walmart, I see them in 7-Elevens,” reported Emma. “Just within the last few months, their expansion has gone crazy.”

The right combination of creative and location can help vault brands to stratospheric social success, and having an existing audience to leverage only amplifies the effect.

Would you like to sweeten your brand’s relationship with its customers? Contact us today for a bite of your own!

Author: Jay Fenster, Marketing Manager @ OUTFRONT
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