Objectives
Since the 1990s, Mentos’ “Freshmaker” jingle has been more than a piece of advertising. It has become part of the brand’s identity, instantly recognizable across generations. As a global legacy brand sold in more than 160 countries, Mentos did not need to introduce itself to consumers. The challenge was making sure a story that had worked for decades could still mean something to a generation that experiences brands very differently.
The objective, then, was not to reinvent the Freshmaker story, but to give it a new way to live.
Mentos wanted to preserve the melody, humour and personality that made the original memorable while translating them into a social-first format that felt natural to Gen Z. Rather than depending on nostalgia, the campaign aimed to show that a familiar brand asset could still participate in contemporary culture if it was told in the right voice.
The campaign set out to:
- Preserve the recognizability and brand equity of the Freshmaker jingle
- Connect with Gen Z through creators they already follow and trust
- Drive large-scale awareness and engagement without compromising authenticity
- Demonstrate how a legacy brand asset can remain culturally relevant by finding new ways to tell an established story
Success was measured through reach, engagement and efficiency across organic and paid social. Organic engagement was particularly important because it offered a clearer indication of whether the campaign was connecting naturally with audiences, rather than simply being pushed to them through media spend.
Strategy and Execution
The answer was to bring the Freshmaker jingle back, but not by simply bringing back the old campaign.
Mentos kept the melody at the centre of the work while changing almost everything around it. The familiar jingle was placed inside social-first content built around humour, music and personality, reflecting the way Gen Z discovers and interacts with culture today.
That shift was rooted in a simple insight: Gen Z does not necessarily experience brands through traditional advertising. Much of what enters their cultural world comes through creators they already know, follow and trust. If Mentos wanted the Freshmaker story to feel native to that world, it needed to give creators room to tell it in their own way.
So the brand partnered with five comedy and music creators : Adam Waheed, That’s a Bad Idea (Cooper & Curry), Aubrey Gavello, Carter Vail and Kyle Gordon. Each was chosen for their ability to entertain Gen Z audiences at scale while maintaining a distinct creative voice.
Instead of asking them to reproduce a conventional advertisement, Mentos gave them the freedom to make the jingle part of the content they were already known for.
That made the creators more than just media placements. They became cultural translators, taking a piece of Mentos’ heritage and making it feel at home in their own worlds. Comedy, music and exaggerated visual moments helped the content stand out in crowded social feeds, while the Freshmaker jingle kept the connection to the brand unmistakable.
Once the strongest organic assets began to gain traction, paid media was used to amplify them across TikTok and Instagram. Rather than creating a separate paid narrative, the strategy allowed the media investment to build on content audiences were already responding to. Platform-specific optimisation then helped the campaign scale while maintaining engagement and cost efficiency.
The real challenge throughout was finding the line between familiar and fresh. Lean too heavily into the past, and the campaign risks becoming a nostalgia exercise. Change too much, and the very asset that gives the brand its recognition begins to disappear.
Mentos solved that tension by keeping the jingle intact while allowing the storytellers to change.
Result
The approach delivered results that went beyond simply bringing an old brand asset back into the conversation.
Over three months, Mentos generated 39.9 million total impressions, reaching 166.8% of its projected reach. More importantly, organic content delivered a 5.15% engagement rate, more than 60% above Goat’s benchmark, suggesting that audiences were not simply seeing the campaign but actively responding to it.
Total engagements surpassed 7.2 million, coming in 130% above forecast. Paid media contributed 34.9 million impressions, outperforming benchmarks by 8%, while paid engagement reached 19.87%, exceeding Goat’s U.S. benchmark.
The impact also extended beyond campaign-level engagement. Mentos’ mint business was growing faster than the overall mint category, while the campaign contributed to a +4.7% lift in purchase intention, outperforming Kantar benchmarks. It also drove a +3% lift in association with the brand’s “Refresh Your Everyday” attribute.
Taken together, the results suggest that the Freshmaker jingle did not need to be replaced to remain relevant. It simply needed to be experienced differently.
And that is perhaps the more interesting lesson from the campaign.
For a legacy brand, staying relevant does not always mean creating something entirely new. Sometimes, the more difficult task is taking something people already know and finding a new cultural context for it.
Mentos kept the melody that had defined the Freshmaker for decades, but handed the storytelling to creators Gen Z already chooses to watch. In doing so, the brand turned a piece of 90s advertising heritage into social content that could live in the present — proving that sometimes, the best way to refresh a story is not to change its heart, but to change who gets to tell it.
The Awards
The campaign’s ability to bring a legacy brand asset into contemporary culture also earned recognition from major industry awards:
- The One Show 2026: Merit Award in Best Use of TikTok for Mentos Re-Freshmaker.
- 18th Annual Shorty Awards: Finalist in Brand Awareness Campaign, with the campaign also entered under Multi-Platform Partnership.
- Global Influencer Marketing Awards 2026: Finalist in Best Consumer Goods Campaign.
The recognition reinforces what made the campaign effective: Mentos did not have to abandon its heritage to speak to a new generation. Instead, it found a way to put something familiar into the hands of creators who could make it feel native to the culture of today.
Want to stay updated on the latest campaigns and creative ideas? Follow Markedium Campaigns for more.
Have a campaign you think deserves a closer look? Submit it to us here.
Leave a comment