Creators were not added to the idea. They were the idea.
Bugles had recently begun local production in Saudi Arabia, but cultural relevance could not be manufactured. To earn real ownership, the brand needed to show up on TikTok in a way that felt shaped by Saudi creators, not delivered by the brand.
The idea was to integrate creators as the driving force behind a cultural reset for the snack. Rather than traditional influencer endorsement, we partnered with creators to reframe how Bugles is enjoyed, turning the act of crunching into a creative expression rooted in sound, play, and remix culture. Bugles stopped being just a snack and became part of Saudi food culture.
Our objective was to design a TikTok partnership where creators were central to how the campaign worked. By building the idea around the physical crunch and an original Arabic sound, creators were given a clear, TikTok-native format that encouraged personal interpretation while keeping the snack at the heart of the content.
The goals were clear:
Success would be measured by whether creators could model a behaviour that the wider community wanted to repeat.
The snack stayed central. Creators made it cultural.
How I Crunch It was built as a creator-first TikTok partnership anchored in a single, repeatable behaviour: showing how you crunch Bugles. At the centre was an original Arabic track built from the sound of the Bugles crunch, turning eating into a creative cue designed for TikTok.
We partnered with a curated mix of Saudi comedy, lifestyle, and food creators, selected for their cultural relevance and ability to inspire participation. All creators worked from the same campaign structure. Open a pack of Bugles, taste it, remix it through an unexpected or playful combination, sync crunches to the track, and finish with the iconic Bugles on fingertips crunch.
This approach ensured the snack remained the focus while allowing creators to bring their own voice, humour, and style. Comedy creators leaned into chaos. Food creators explored flavour mashups. Lifestyle creators treated the ritual as a performance. The result was content that felt cohesive without feeling copied.
TikTok Branded Missions and TopFeed placements helped launch the partnership, but creators were the proof point. By demonstrating how simple and enjoyable the crunch ritual was, they made participation feel accessible to the wider community. The combination of sound, physical action, and a recognisable ending made the behaviour easy to adopt.
The challenge was avoiding content that felt like a product demonstration. We solved this by framing the snack as a playful ritual rather than a feature to explain. Bugles was experienced through creators, not described by the brand.
Creators did not just appear in the campaign. They shaped how it lived on TikTok.
Creators sparked the behaviour. The community amplified it.
The creator partnerships delivered both scale and sustained participation. The campaign generated 44 million views, with 30 percent driven organically, alongside 688K plus engagements and a 1.67 percent engagement rate.
Crucially, the behavior extended beyond paid creators. The campaign generated 91.6 percent positive sentiment and inspired user generated video creation. More importantly, Bugles stopped being just a snack and became part of Saudi food culture.
The campaign impact contributed to a 65 percent increase in eCommerce sales and led to the creation of the Bugles Recipe Archive, where Saudis continue to share flavor combinations inspired by the trend.
By integrating creators as active partners in shaping the idea, not just amplifying it, the campaign demonstrates what effective TikTok creator integration looks like when it is built for the platform and the people who drive it.
