Community Over Cookies: How Slim Jim's Long Boi Gang Claimed Victory in March Adness 2021

It’s official: The Long Boi Gang has claimed victory for Slim Jim in our annual March Adness tournament. Adweek's March Adness bracket, which lets readers vote on the year's best advertisers, always prompts dramatic brand rivalries and impressive community moments. But nothing prepared us for the results of this year's tournament. Round after round shredded our top seeds as brand communities rose and collided. Titans like Apple, Bud Light and Nike fell to relative underdogs like Heinz and Wendy’s. One of the most dramatic moments of the tournaments was the face-off between two-time March Adness champion Aviation Gin and Sour Patch Kids. The candy brand claimed an unexpected victory over Ryan Reynolds’ gin brand in Round 1. But with votes being totaled from Twitter, Instagram and Adweek.com, cross-platform battles threw unexpected wrenches in the tournament. Sour Patch Kids narrowly—by about 100 votes—fell to McDonald’s thanks to Instagram voting during the Elite Eight, despite an impressive and passionate Twitter turnout. But it was Slim Jim that emerged victorious, handily demolishing marketing icons Doritos, Pepsi, Amazon and M&M's before rallying its fan army for a final championship battle against Oreo—which had proven its bracket-dominating powers by winning Adweek's 2020 Ad of the Year tournament with its Oreo Doomsday Vault. https://twitter.com/Adweek/status/1378374013030907904?s=20 Adweek has written about the power of Slim Jim's highly engaged fan base—the Long Boi Gang—before, and how Slim Jim amassed what has now reached more than 1.3 million followers on Instagram. That community certainly showed up to the battle, surpassing Oreo by more than 30,000 votes on Instagram. https://twitter.com/SlimJim/status/1379084964898160643?s=20 But who could have predicted that Slim Jim’s Twitter following—only 64,000 strong, would also achieve victory over Oreo, which has almost 1 million Twitter followers? While Oreo rallied other brands like Chips Ahoy and Sunny D, Slim Jim brought in highly engaged meme communities, especially the "doge" and Dogecoin communities led by accounts including @DogecoinRise. “We're to the moon—and over the moon—about this,” said Spencer Fivelson, brand marketing director for the protein snacking group at Slim Jim parent company Conagra Brands. “Brands talk about authenticity all the time, but it's actually about something even bigger, which is about a sense of belonging. It's activating that universal truth—defying convention, crushing boredom and creating a sense of community.” https://twitter.com/SlimJim/status/1378888823766155266?s=20 And indeed, with this support and a relentless commitment to victory from the brand account itself, “community over cookies” quickly became the rallying cry of the championship. As is tradition, the brand will receive the Adweek March Adness championship belt. But to celebrate everyone, Slim Jim has also made 15 custom belts for the leaders of the meme communities and other fans that helped the brand achieve victory. “Community wins, and if you're not pushing community, then what are you doing?” said Evan Weissbrot, president of 180 New York, who oversees Slim Jim’s social presence and fueled the brand’s tournament engagement. "Belonging and togetherness and inclusion—all of these things are so important now, so the fact that we're able to get all this goodwill and sentiment bubbling up to the top, that's amazing. I love that." Meat and Memes: How Slim Jim’s Long Boi Gang Surged to 1.2 Million Members