Red Vines Licorice Takes on Twizzlers in Social Media Battle

Red Vines Licorice is going up against a $25 million budget from competitor Hershey's Twizzlers. Using social and mobile marketing to glean a boatload of earned media, the brand hopes to put a dent in Twizzlers sales.

On YouTube the brand has launched product integration efforts with TeamStarKid's A Very Harry Musical which has garnered the brand upwards of 1. million views to date.

Using mobile, the company claims to be the first in its industry to make its products available on CheckPoints, allowing consumers to earn rewards by scanning its products while out shopping.

On Facebook the brand's initial 8,000 Facebook fans have grown to 83,000 in 12 months.

Red Vine's World of Sharing campaign has made it almost all the way around the world with close to 20,000 messages posted so far.

Red Vines tell us it has eclipsed Twizzlers in positive brand conversations. In addition, this Spring the brand will measure year over year sales lift in specific markets to determine what quantifiable effects the social campaign in having, That said, the brand tells us, "Based on market share, Red Vines has relatively many more fans on Facebook, has grown its Twitter followers faster, and has more integration on YouTube videos than the competition."

We anxiously await sales figures. We will say a Google search for "licorice" does turn up Red Vines Licorice on the first page of results. And while Red Vines is on the bottom of the page, Twizzlers in nowhere to be seen. And yea, we get that Red Vines has "licorice" in its name and Twizzlers doesn't.