KitKat: Cutting Through the YouTube Chaos to Deliver Meaningful Teen Breaks
How KitKat partnered with SuperAwesome to claim the teen break on YouTube, finding the placements that mattered most while driving massive purchase intent and real-world action among Gen Z.
📍 Location: USA
The Challenge
One Gen Z Strategy Won’t Work
Teens (13–17) are not an extension of Gen Z (young adults) and should not be viewed as future consumers. Engaging the 13-17 youth segment requires a vastly different approach than targeting the 18-34 demographic.
| Targeting | Creative |
| Standard adult targeting leverages extensive behavioral data and generalized demographic buckets to achieve scale, while teens operate in a highly fragmented, fast-paced digital ecosystem. 75% of teens report that YouTube is the platform they are most likely to notice advertising on, however, the environment is vast and cluttered. KitKat needed to cut through this noise to find the specific placements that mattered most to their specific youth segment, without relying on generic youth inventory. | Teens are more skeptical than other cohorts and quickly sniff out inauthenticity. The “Young Adult Playful Explorers” identified by KitKat actively prioritize mental health and build intentional breaks into their day to manage stress and prevent burnout. The campaign needed to capture attention instantly and deliver a brand message that resonated with teens’ desire for intentional breaks. |
| Targeting |
| Standard adult targeting leverages extensive behavioral data and generalized demographic buckets to achieve scale, while teens operate in a highly fragmented, fast-paced digital ecosystem. 75% of teens report that YouTube is the platform they are most likely to notice advertising on, however, the environment is vast and cluttered. KitKat needed to cut through this noise to find the specific placements that mattered most to their specific youth segment, without relying on generic youth inventory. |
| Creative |
| Teens are more skeptical than other cohorts and quickly sniff out inauthenticity. The “Young Adult Playful Explorers” identified by KitKat actively prioritize mental health and build intentional breaks into their day to manage stress and prevent burnout. The campaign needed to capture attention instantly and deliver a brand message that resonated with teens’ desire for intentional breaks. |
The Solution
To engage teens effectively, SuperAwesome deployed an insights-driven strategy powered by Awesome Intelligence, our audience data and recommendation platform.
Media Strategy: The Audience-Based Approach
Instead of relying on broad demographics, SuperAwesome utilized Awesome Intelligence to identify the core segments most relevant to KitKat’s “Young Adult Playful Explorers” brief.
The campaign modeled three key 13-17 audiences, with 84% of them using YouTube daily and all aligning with KitKat’s values and passions (with interests spanning gaming, streaming, music, and food & drink).
Creative Strategy: Built for Teens, Not Adults
A standard commercial built for an 18-34 year old audience often fails to engage Gen Z. Teens prefer shorter, snappier content, though narrative long-form still plays a crucial role, which is why it was important to have a presence on both YouTube Shorts and YouTube Main.
To ensure the messaging landed, SuperAwesome ran a Creative Assessment testing two distinct ad formats: a narrative-driven 15-second “Countdown” video and a fast-paced 6-second “Scroll break” short-form ad. This gave KitKat the opportunity to understand whether the audience liked the creatives and how they might optimize future iterations.
Dedicated Safety & CFBAI Compliance
The climate for F&B advertisers in the US demands extreme precision. SuperAwesome requires all ad campaigns to comply with its SuperAwesome Ad Standards to ensure responsible marketing. Additionally, creative is reviewed against our Teen Creative Best Practices to help address known vulnerabilities among teens.
A comprehensive verified channel list with confidence in safety and relevance for the KitKat audience.
Results
The audience-first YouTube strategy cut through the noise, delivering highly relevant messaging that resonated deeply with this teen audience and drove strong emotional connection and real-world action.
- 3.20% YouTube Shorts VR, +1.2pts vs benchmark
- 86% YouTube Trueview VR, which is +56pts higher than the benchmark
A bespoke Creative Assessment study revealed the significant impact of the campaign’s youth-tailored assets:
- 74% positive shift in brand opinion
- 84% of viewers were prompted to take real-world action (such as talking to friends or searching on YouTube)
- 81% likelihood to purchase among the target audience
Why It Worked
Sensory Creative Angles
The campaign’s creative deeply resonated by leaning into satisfying sensory moments. Strong visual and audio cues – like the upbeat aesthetics, the bold red brand color, and the satisfying “snap” of the chocolate – acted as powerful hooks that captured Gen Z’s fast-paced attention far more effectively than traditional 18-34 targeted commercials.
Story-Led Formats
The campaign’s creative deeply resonated by leaning into satisfying sensory moments. Strong visual and audio cues – like the upbeat aesthetics, the bold red brand color, and the satisfying “snap” of the chocolate – acted as powerful hooks that captured Gen Z’s fast-paced attention far more effectively than traditional 18-34 targeted commercials.
Navigating the Crowded Ecosystem with Intelligence
By combining Awesome Intelligence with expert human curation, KitKat didn’t just buy standard inventory; they hand-picked the premium channels that actually mattered to “Playful Explorers”. This dual approach enabled them to drive phenomenal real-world impact while confidently upholding their CFBAI commitments
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