Pringles HOT Launches "HOT Seat Challenge" with Lastminute.com to Drive Gen Z Sales through Creator-Led Activation

Mar. 11, 2026

Pringles, working with brand activation agency ZEAL and its recently acquired social-first creative studio Tommy, has launched "Pringles HOT Seat Challenge". The new social-first campaign is designed to drive awareness of its on-pack promotion in partnership with lastminute.com and increase sales of Pringles HOT among Gen Z audiences.

The activity continues to build the snack brand’s affiliation with younger consumers in an authentic and culturally relevant way. It also represents a first-of-its-kind activation for the spicy sub-brand, exploring new ways to connect with its audience beyond traditional media.

Strategically, the on-pack promotion was developed to offer shoppers the escape they are looking for during the winter months, when colder weather, financial pressures and the realities of adult life can hit 20-somethings hardest. The partnership with lastminute.com directly supports this mechanic, giving away the "hottest" group holiday and £50 off lastminute.com with every pack.

Pringles partnered with ZEAL and Tommy to develop an engaging and innovative campaign that would earn cultural relevance with Gen Z, recognising that traditional OOH would not speak to the right audience at the right time. With Gen Z socially native yet inundated with content, the agencies identified creator-led activity as the most effective way to meet them where they already show up. The ambition was to get the holiday “out of the group chat” and get people excited once again.

At the heart of the campaign is a creator-led challenge inspired by the chaos of sprinting to the airport for a last-minute group holiday. Gen Z YouTuber Tays takes 14 participants on an airport coach transfer from Manchester Piccadilly to Manchester Airport, stopping at iconic Manchester landmarks along the way. Across the journey, participants take part in six challenges to crown a final winner of a lastminute.com holiday worth £2,000.

The hero content is running across Tays’ channels, following a series of teasers earlier this month, with follow-up activity featuring macro creators. Behind-the-scenes content from Tays, the Bov Boys and a mix of micro to macro creators will extend the reach of the activity across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube in the UK.

The campaign is the first to be developed through a fully collaborative model between ZEAL and Tommy, following ZEAL’s acquisition of Tommy last month. The work was won following a competitive pitch, with both agencies partnering from the outset to create a joined-up activation and creator-led approach. ZEAL’s specialist divisions also played a central role, with ZEAL X managing and executing the live experiential challenge across Manchester and ZEAL Collabs leading the partnership with lastminute.com.

Seanain McGuigan, Brand Manager at Pringles, said:

"We wanted to connect with Gen Z with an innovative format and bring our on-pack promotion to life in a way that felt exciting and culturally relevant. The HOT Seat Challenge captures the chaos and energy of group holidays and puts Pringles HOT at the centre of that experience."

 

Zoe Fidler, Head of Brand and PR at lastminute.com, said:

"We’re always looking for ways to bring the excitement of last-minute travel to life. Partnering with Pringles HOT on the on-pack promotion and the HOT Seat Challenge gave us a fun and culturally relevant way to do exactly that. By turning the excitement of a last-minute trip into a creator-led challenge, the campaign captures the spirit of lastminute.com customers and puts a real holiday experience at the centre of the action."

 

Rob White, Co-Founder at ZEAL, said: 

"This campaign shows what can happen when complementary capabilities come together around a clear brand idea. Our role was to help bring Pringles HOT’s on-pack promotion to life in a way that would genuinely resonate with Gen Z. ZEAL shaped the activation concept and overall experience, with ZEAL X delivering the live Manchester challenge and ZEAL Collabs developing the partnership with lastminute.com, while Tommy’s creator-first approach ensured the idea was designed for social from the outset. Working together from day one meant the creator content, the partnership and the real-world activation all reinforced the same objective: putting Pringles HOT at the centre of an experience that audiences would want to watch, share and take part in."