Case Study: Cheetos achieves an award-winning Super Bowl ad and Cannes Lions Grand Prix win with Zappi Amplify TV

How Cheetos made an ad that scored big at the Super Bowl and Cannes using Zappi Amplify TV to perfect their big idea and make it universally appealing

Cheetos faced the high-stakes challenge of announcing Cheetos Popcorn Mix in the Super Bowl—where reach, cost and competition make ad performance critical—and needed to ensure their creative would be broadly appealing rather than polarizing. To validate and refine the idea, Cheetos worked with Zappi using Zappi Amplify TV for early-stage testing of four animatic concepts.

Zappi’s testing provided moment-by-moment emoji diagnostics, open verbatims and custom questions so Cheetos could pick and combine the most effective elements, confidently invest in a Super Bowl slot and optimize the final spot. The result: the chosen ad ranked in the top third of all ads tested for driving immediate sales, delivered strong long-term brand impact, drove high ROI at the Super Bowl, and went on to win the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Creative Strategy.

Cheetos