The Hershey’s Bar, the TikTok Pitch and What Stuck at NACS

After 15 years attending the convenience industry’s premier gathering, the best ideas still connect consumer excitement with a reason for retailers to care.

There was a steady line at Hershey’s activation during the busiest days of this year’s NACS Show. The draw? A familiar chocolate bar with a very unfamiliar wrapper: your own photo on it.

People were making bars for their kids, using wedding pictures and turning group photos into gifts. I heard attendees telling other attendees to go find the booth. For a show built around products, distribution and business meetings, one of the most talked-about experiences was a candy bar people already knew.

I’ve attended 14 NACS Shows over the past 15 years (thanks, COVID). I’ve seen plenty of ways to draw a crowd, and this year delivered the expected wave of product trends: more protein, more functional options, more pickle flavors and more sugar-free choices. But two things stood out to me beyond the products themselves. Brands are getting better at using online attention to open retail conversations. And the best in-person experiences still give people a reason to remember a brand after they leave.

A Viral Moment Is Now Part of the Retail Pitch

Smaller brands are increasingly putting social success right into their trade-show messaging. A viral video or a strong TikTok following can give an unfamiliar product a head start with a buyer who has never seen it on a shelf.

I saw a display centered on products popular through TikTok. My 19-year-old recognized several of them immediately. I didn’t. That’s a useful reminder of how far product discovery can travel before conventional distribution catches up.

But recognition is the beginning of the sales conversation. Retailers still have to decide whether a product will move, make money and earn repeat purchases. Views alone cannot answer those questions. Social commerce adds another layer because brands can bring purchase data into the discussion, not just audience numbers.

That’s a meaningful change for emerging brands. It also raises the bar for their pitch. If the product has online momentum, show a buyer how that interest can translate into performance in a store.

Two Conversations at the Same Show

One of the more interesting things about this year’s NACS wasn’t limited to the exhibit floor. When we looked at the show’s educational programming afterward, we saw another side of the industry’s priorities.

On the floor, brands were showcasing trending products, social popularity and experiences that gave attendees something to talk about. In the education sessions, the emphasis was on customer loyalty, trip frequency, retail media and using customer data to bring shoppers back. Across the 57 sessions we reviewed, none focused specifically on TikTok, social commerce or influencer marketing.

I don’t see those as competing priorities. They’re two parts of the same challenge. Getting someone interested in a product is valuable. Giving a retailer confidence that the interest will translate into purchases, and ideally repeat purchases, is what makes that attention commercially useful.

Trade-Show Attendees Are Consumers, Too

There’s always a fair argument that a trade show should be about deals and relationships. Those conversations happen in meeting rooms and over dinner, and they matter. But everyone walking the floor is also a consumer. They have favorite products, families to bring gifts home to and memories tied to brands.

Celebrity appearances can pull a crowd, but I tend to put more value on an interaction that stays with someone. A photo with a celebrity can be fun in the moment or on your social media feed. Something personal that you make for yourself or someone back home gives the experience a longer life. That was the appeal of the Hershey bar: people left with a familiar product that now meant something specific to them.

We even found an attendee sharing her personalized NACS Hershey’s bars on Instagram. That’s one example of the experience traveling beyond the booth. I don’t know the exact volume of social engagement Hershey generated, but I saw people waiting in line, creating gifts and people in other areas of the show floor recommending the experience to others. Those interactions matter whether or not they generate a big social number.

For transparency, Hershey is a PriceWeber client, but our agency wasn’t involved in developing or executing this particular activation.

Give Attention a Job

For marketers, the lesson from NACS is to be specific about what kind of attention we need and what we expect it to do next. An emerging brand may need enough awareness to earn a buyer meeting. A retailer may need evidence that curiosity turns into repeat sales. An established brand may want to deepen an emotional connection with people who already know it.

Those are different jobs, and they deserve different measures of success. A viral post can help introduce a product. Sales data can support the retail case. A memorable experience can strengthen a relationship in ways that won’t show up neatly in a dashboard.

I still appreciate a big booth and a good product launch. But what sticks with me is the work that understands the person on the other side of the interaction. This year, one of the clearest reminders came wrapped around a Hershey’s bar.