Snickers is taking its long-running “You’re not you when you’re hungry” brand platform into new territory with a world-first out-of-home activation that turns a freight train into a full-scale moving billboard.
The brand has wrapped four shipping containers on a 50-carriage freight service to intercept Australians at level crossings, reframing one of the country’s most familiar frustrations into a captive media moment.
Targeting hunger where it hits hardest
Australia has more than 23,000 level crossings, with Western Australia home to some of the longest wait times.
Wharf Street in Perth can be down for up to seven hours a day, and Oats Street sits at around six. For commuters, that means losing days each year parked at boom gates.
This November, Snickers decided to show up in that exact moment.
“The Snickers Train takes that universal frustration and flips it into something playful,” said Richard Weisinger, head of brand and content, Mars Wrigley Australia.
“We saw an opportunity to show up in a moment where hunger might lead to out-of-the-ordinary moments, a captive environment that brands rarely tap into. By transforming a working freight train into a moving billboard, we are turning passive downtime into a branded experience with impact. We cannot speed up the trains, but we can make the wait feel shorter and sweeter,” he said.
The activation injects humour into what the brand describes as a uniquely Australian problem.
The wrapped containers feature hunger-triggered lines such as Impatient, Hangry, Long Train Ay and Should’ve packed a Snickers.
A high-speed twist on a long-running brand platform
T and P Australia creative director Boris Garelja said the brand has a history of reinventing its core message in unexpected ways.
“The Snickers team have delivered iconic brand messaging in consistently innovative ways over the years. For this latest chapter, we are hoping our captive audience remains level-headed at the level crossing and is inspired to stash a few Snickers in the glovebox next time they hit the servo,” Garelja said.
Shot across a single six-hour window with three roaming camera crews, the activation aims to transform a routine inconvenience into a shareable real-world media moment.