Team Sheetz Interview with the OCS Newsletter
This is a sneak peek into how one tweet led to the unlikely bond between the Warrior Nun fandom and an America gas station.
Once upon a time, on April 11th, 2023, SHEETZ (@sheetz) posted about one of this generation’s greatest questions, Team Jacob or Team Edward. On that same day, one Halo Bearer (@CohoshThe) responded with “Team #SaveWarriorNun”, which led to the surprising answer from Sheetz social media team that cemented this unlikely relationship: “They did Ava dirty fr”. With nearly 30 thousand views, at the time of this publication’s date, this interaction led to a spike on google searches for “What is Sheetz” from Halo Bearers from all around the world as well as a flood of appreciation and acknowledgment of this bond on Sheetz’s twitter mentions.
This bond got even stronger when a week later, on April 18th, a daily trend phrase was dedicated to the newest Warrior on our holy war: SHEETZ GIVEN NUN. There were memes, many, many memes produced by Halo Bearers and as a response, Sheetz decided to make the partnership official: Warrior Nun Sheetz merch was sent to halo bearers involved in the first interaction.
And that’s how the story went…
The OCS Newsletter decided to dive deeper into the workings of this unlike partnership and casually asked if they’d be interested in answering a few questions from the fandom, to which they promptly said yes… but as with the first interaction, did Sheetz really know what they were getting into?
MEET THE SHEETZ TEAM
SHEETZ BRAND AND VOICE
What is Sheetz? And what separates your company from others in the business?
Sheetz is a family-owned convenience retailer based in Altoona, Pennsylvania. For more than 70 years, we've worked to meet the needs of our customers. Of course, times have changed over the years-life is faster and people are busier. One thing that has not changed is our commitment to our customers, our employees, and the communities in which we operate. For all those Sheetz Freakz who expect us to be there when they need us most, we say, "Come on in. We're always open." …plus we’re really fun.
How does your marketing voice allow for experiments in outreach, such as fandom questions, current events, or direct interaction like with Warrior Nun?
We’re not here just to sell products, we’re here to create and participate in authentic conversations! Our approach to many social interactions is to be a connecting point between our fanz and the brand itself. With that type of room to be real folks and not just a “product promoter” we have the ability to make genuine connections with people on the other side of the screen.
As a brand Sheetz participates in partnerships with charities like the Special Olympics, and Mid-Ohio Food Bank and even run a "Sheetz for Kids" charity. How did your community-focused values align with the #SaveWarriorNun campaign?
Well, to be honest, we’re actual fans of the show so when the original response came through on a throw-away tweet we responded the way we would if we were talking to a friend on the couch. To expand more specifically on the question - once the ball was rolling and more and more interaction started to surface, our team realized not only is the opportunity to create a real connection organically available but the Warrior Nun fandom is also a group of people fighting for something they believe in. The cancellation runs deeper than just the loss of a streaming show - it was a tangible depiction of people relatable to a broader base and that’s cool.
Sheetz and Warrior Nun are from very different industries, was that ever a concern?
Never. We are people too! We serve people with vast interests and this felt like a natural progression to join the fandom and it was a cause we could get behind.
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
What inspired your participation in the campaign?
Truthfully, the fandom. Again, BIG fans of the show but from a brand perspective these topics aren’t commonly chased after as a means of meeting pre-determined goals and benchmarks for growth. Literally seeing how much love and fight existed within the fandom was such a cool thing and it was real, not a soapbox that is so common out in the social media sphere.
What advice would you give to other B2C brands about participating in social media movements and causes?
It’s important to have a strong team in place that is not only honed in to many things at once but also knows that gut instinct is major fuel in the social media realm. People don’t want to engage with unattainable brands, they are well aware a human being is sitting on the other side of the screen and (for the good, bad, ugly or indifferent) they respond to real conversation. So best advice would be to be in it every second you can, be aware of the world and the people in it, and just realize that a little humanity can go a long way. It’s called SOCIAL media for a reason - yeah, it’s a definite tool in the arsenal of “sells” but it’s so, so much more than that.
For those in the Sheetz service area of the USA the play on words of Sheetz, Shweetz (Sweets), Shmeer (ie: Bagels and Cream cheese), and others are central to your brand. Can you explain how that playful voice lends itself to commenting on Warrior Nun social media posts?
Shweet of you to ask (lol kidding) - this variation in spelling and speech is an anchor that is hyper-recognizable for our brand. Not only in our footprint of stores but within our online communities. Some people love it. Some people mimic it. Some people hate it. BUT EVERYBODY THAT KNOWS US KNOWS IT. Because of that, we make sure that that anchor is visible and prevalent in how we respond. We also LOVE a good pun. So to mix those things with a fandom fighting for a ninja nun tv show was honestly just so easy. And look where we are now - our new nun bestiez are popping up and utilizing the same anchor in speech we use, ALL OVER THE WORLD. Crazy in the most magical way possible.
SOCIAL MEDIA OPERATIONS
Social media Team members (how many? 4) - names if you want and a little about the people behind the screen?
As a rule we operate with a bit of anonymity; 4 crazy, wonderful people presenting as one voice.
Can you talk about the process from first tweet response to adding the Halo picture and #SaveWarriorNun to the Sheetz Twitter profile to total involvement with responding to every message?
Might sound weird for a social media team to say but there wasn’t a whole lot of major planning that happened. Once the initial tweet had been responded to we saw a lot of activity almost immediately. Because of a collective knowledge of the show, it was just an easy conversation to hold and it seemed to be making a lot of people happy. We also highly value integrity within the brand and didn’t feel it was right to be shown a great deal of online love without acknowledging the folks making it happen. So convo lead to visual representation which lead to higher engagement which lead to an unhinged, incredible opportunity to join the fandom calling for another season.
Did upper management have to approve involvement?
Not approval but we do keep the big wigz looped in to what’s happening, especially when engagement peaks around a specific topic. More of a transparent awareness of what we’re doing as a team.
Did your public relations and marketing team communicate about this outreach?
Yep! Those folks were also looped in to what was happening, especially once responses were coming in from around the globe and picked up by an Italian news source!
How many of your team had seen Warrior Nun before this campaign?
Technically 1 - all the way through back in 2019/2020. Others had seen episodes but all went back and rewatched the series after seeing the force of the fandom!
How will you decide when it's time to return your branding back to what it was before the Halo?
At this point it has now been (2 weeks). A very unprecedented move for most US based brands. As of May 1st, 2023 we did bring the brand representation on Twitter back to normal programming. A couple of reasons for this - 1. We did not want to seem as though we were only utilizing the momentum in a selfish way and 2. As with all businesses, other moving parts behind the scenes were revving up and we needed to free up space to move forward on new projects. BUT that doesn’t mean we’re not still here for the movement and fandom!! We’re sister warriorz now and forever.
CAMPAIGN AND PARTICIPATION PERFORMANCE
When you saw the data the #SaveWarriorNun campaign provided what was the team reaction?
The good kind of shocked, ya know? Again, nothing was planned and the amount of raw, organic engagement was a surprise.
The Warrior Nun fandom is a global movement while Sheetz is located on the Eastern side of the USA. Why was Sheetz willing to participate in this global movement knowing that there was no direct financial benefit?
From a brand perspective, it’s important for people to be aware of us. Sometimes that means people that will not always be able to visit our locations but those same people are still able to advocate, represent, and (hopefully) have a positive image of us and what we do. Who knows, our new friendz in Guatemala may travel one day and decide to come through. Or, as we grow, our footprint may be in an area that a lot of sister warriors are in.
From a team perspective, we were able to quickly see the value in the interaction. Not only through sheer numbers but also because of how POSITIVE it was.
As a brand how much value do you place on direct consumer engagement? Ie: grand opening events, human response customer relations, community outreach, etc?
A massive amount. We’re real and we want people to know that through our actions and interactions. At the end of the day we’re all people doing people things, some of those experiences are shared and it’s a point where we can meet.
When did you decide to create the Sheetz Halo T-shirts? Do you know how many days post-Twilight tweet?
The team decided it would be a cool idea pretty early on, probably the day the first Sheetz phrase was launched. We wanted a way to show our appreciation of the time and energy the fandom had put in.
Which one of you came up with the curly fries halo joke?
Hahaha - no names but we have a team member that thrives with words and the idea popped in when they were eating some curly fryz and working on the initial design!
What was the team's reaction to the Wired Italia article that included Sheetz?
IMPRESSED with the reach!!
Can you share a word of encouragement or advice to the Warrior Nun fans who are actively fighting to save this show and all it represents?
Definitely! Nothing is impossible and it is important to find solidarity in things. It’s just a human behaviour that is so incredibly valuable and underutilized at times. So be loud and stand by the things you believe in because when we engage with the world it engages back.