Reflection on Social Media Case 4: Nestle’s “Funner Menu Options”

Nestle had a great idea: They wanted to stand out so the made a phone menu option that was simply for kicks. It went something like this:

“Welcome, from Nestle.

For Pig Latin, esprey eethay asteriskway eekay;

For calorie information, press or say 1;

If it is allergy ingredient information you need, press or say 2

To speak to a representative, press or say 0;

For nutritional information on our chocolate treats, press or say 3;

For a knock-knock joke and other ‘funner options’, press or say 4;

[Press 4]

Please listen carefully as our ‘funner menu options’ have changed;

To hear a knock-knock joke, press or say 1; |

To listen to a backyard game of catch, press or say 2;

For bubble wrap, press or say 3;

For a cannon ball off the diving board, press or say 4;

To hear me give a noogey to the operator next to me, press or say 5;

To hear a boy express his affection to the girl he likes, press or say 6;

For information about cooties, press or say, 7;

To repeat these options, press # or say ‘repeat’;

To speak to a representative, say ‘representative’;

To return to the previous menu, press 9, or say ‘previous menu’.”

And people loved it! Here is a blog post that doesn’t even tell you what it is about, just tells you the directions and tells you to leave a comment. Unfortunately because it became so popular, they moved the “Funner Menu Options” online so people with actual customer service issues could get through.

So what worked about this? Well, it was fresh. Usually call menus are boring and computer generated. People weren’t expecting something fun so when the first few people called, they likely were caught off guard and wanted to share it with their friends. So they took to Twitter and Facebook, blogs, and pretty much anyway to get the word out.

Also, this is a candy company, so the stakes are fairly low. I have to agree with this blog that it wouldn’t work for a car company that was having major recall issues that if people are having issues and need to call customer service, they don’t have to waste their time listening to unrelated information.

So, it was a great idea. They got a lot of positive promotion from the public because it went viral. Of course there were a few downers, but the overall consensus was positive.