Gets the People Talking

Welcome back to The Friday Fortune, where we gently distract you from your inbox and aggressively remind you that the most emotionally resonant ad medium in the world has been hiding inside a cellophane wrapper this whole time.

If you’re new here: OpenFortune turns the fortune cookie into a targeted, scalable media channel. 

We’ve integrated into the supply chain of over 100,000 restaurants to transform billions of those tiny slips of paper into a trackable, physical ad platform. 

But before we go any further, I’d like you to close your eyes and think about your fondest fortune cookie memory. Where did it happen?

Likely at the dinner table involving family and friends.

And the dinner table is where life actually happens.

It's where families debrief after the big game, the job interview, the breakup. It's where friends hash out major life decisions over dumplings at midnight. It's where grandparents and grandchildren sit across from each other and talk about the future.

People aren't distracted at that table. They're present. They're emotionally open in a way they almost never are in their regular day. And right at the peak of that connection — that slightly sacred post-meal moment — everyone reaches for a cookie.

They crack it open.

They read the message.

And sometimes? They laugh, cry, embrace, and ponder.

Because the cookie said exactly what they needed to hear, at exactly the right moment, in front of exactly the right people.

Just look at Idaho State Volleyball star Abby McLain, who decided to attend ISU purely off “a sign” that she received from her fortune cookie one fateful evening.

That's a core memory.

And we have the data to prove that memories convert.

62% unaided brand recall. Six out of ten people remember. By name.

To put that number in perspective: traditional advertising — TV, digital, out-of-home — typically struggles to crack 10%.

That means nearly two out of three people who encounter an OpenFortune campaign can recall the brand without being prompted, and many of our clients like Duolingo, Chime, and Waymo have reached unaided recall of between 62%-88%! 

Also, we want to make clear that billboards and OOH have their place. Broad reach, ambient presence, keeping a brand in the cultural atmosphere. That's a legitimate play and we're not here to bury it.

But ask your OOH vendor to show you unaided recall numbers from their last campaign and watch what happens to the room.

But here's the metric that has no comparison anywhere in advertising…

Talk time.

After someone opens a fortune cookie with your brand's message on it, they talk about it for an average of 1 minute and 50 seconds. Some people spoke about the brand for OVER TEN MINUTES!

That sounds modest until you stack it against every other ad format on earth.

TV spots get skipped. Digital ads disappear in under two seconds if they registered at all. Billboards get a glance at 45 miles per hour. Discussion over before it started.

Name one other ad medium that gets a table full of people talking about your brand for nearly two minutes.

You can't. It doesn't exist.

And here's why it happens. The reason people talk isn't because they saw an ad. It's because the fortune said something that landed. It connected to what they were already feeling, thinking, or talking about at that table. Your brand gets woven into that conversation not as an interruption but as a participant.

Also, nobody expects it coming and who doesn’t love a good surprise?

Quoting Jockey’s VP of Marketing, Tom Hutchison: “It’s surprise and delight. Consumers are going into the cookie and they’re choosing to engage with your ad. 

The OpenFortune Difference…

And that’s the truly special thing about fortune cookie ads. People do something with them that they have never done with a banner ad or a bus shelter in the history of advertising.

They keep them.

Not metaphorically. Physically. In their wallets, tucked behind their credit cards. On their refrigerators under a magnet. In the center console of their car. Taped to the inside cover of a journal. Some people have collections going back years, little stacks of slips rubber-banded together like they are saving something that matters.

Because to them, it does.

Nobody saves a billboard. Nobody pulls a taxi screen out of a cab to look at later. Nobody has a drawer full of pre-roll ads they want to revisit someday.

But your brand? Your brand can live in someone's wallet for three years.

That is not reach or recall. That is something the rest of the media landscape does not have a metric for yet, because nothing else has ever earned it.

And that is what we want to show you.

Not a deck full of impressions and estimated reach or media plan built on rough guesses and hoped-for awareness. 

Real numbers. Real recall. Real conversations happening at real dinner tables with your brand right in the middle of them.

62%+ unaided recall. 110 seconds of live conversation. And your logo sitting in someone's wallet next to their kids' school photos.

No other channel gives you all of that. Most can't give you any of it.

If you are a brand that cares about actually being remembered, not just seen, we would love to spend 15 minutes showing you exactly what this looks like built around your audience and your goals.

The cookies are already out there. Billions of them, every year, at tables full of present, emotionally open humans having the kinds of conversations that actually stick.

The only question is whether your message is inside one.

Let’s put your brand at the table…

That’s a wrap for this week’s Friday fortune.

If you enjoyed the read, pass it along to your favorite marketer who could use a little extra inspo in their inbox.

Until next time, may your marketing be memorable and your cookies always be fortunate!

— The OpenFortune team