2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

McCain Foods recently secured the distribution rights for Simulate, a plant-based food company in Canada, but the brand's internet fame had not yet crossed the border. To create a cultural presence in Canada and replicate Simulate's success in the United States, our team focused on the cultural insight of questioning reality, inspired by the brand's name. We aimed to get the internet debating the reality of chicken by building a fake, animatronic chicken and setting it loose on the internet.

First, we uploaded an unbranded, fake, flying chicken video to Reddit without context, which sparked debate and rose to the top of dozens of subreddits. Conspiracy theories ran wild, and Redditors speculated the mysterious birds were everything from CGI to government drones. The ensuing upvotes helped the videos gain more traction online, and we expanded our hoax to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, where the videos and debate gained even more momentum. Finally, the hoax landed in news articles and publications, causing the internet to go wild with curiosity.

Our team revealed the truth that it was all fake, just like the chicken in Simulate nuggets, and the internet's response was overwhelmingly positive, with over 22,000 comments across posts, and more than 7 million impressions in organic social reach. The most viral TikToks had more than 5.5 million views and nearly 70 Duets and stitches. In total, we achieved over 2.5 million impressions in earned media and over 18.6 million impressions to nearly 2.5 million Canadians in paid media.

Credits

Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Executive Creative Director: Leia Rogers
Associate Creative Director: Grace Cho, Cam Spires
Creative Director French: Karine Doucet
Writer: Cam Spires
Art Director: Grace Cho
CSO: Sean McDonald
Planning Director: Darren Yada
Strategist: Sam Massooleh
Broadcast Producer: Eliza Nowack, David Fraser-Winsby
Production Company: Anthill Films
Partner / Executive Producer: Ian Dunn
Partner / Director of Aerials: Colin Jones
Cinematographer: William Biname
Director: Cam Spires and Grace Cho
Line Producer: Mack Stannard
Post Production House: PostPro Media
Editor: Julia Hostetler
2D / 3D Visual Artist: Mathew Hayashi, Cory Clarkson,
Austin Wendenburg
Grading: Julia Hostetler
Audio House: Wave Productions
Engineer: Dave Gaudet
Group Account Director: Sarah Riedlinger
Account Manager: Melissa Luk
Strategic Communications Lead: Meredith Montgomery
PR / Account Director: Sara Lemmermeyer
PR Coordinator: Kaitlyn Vian

Client: McCain Foods Canada
Matt Kohler - Managing Director, Canada Retail
Mike Embir - Director of Marketing Retail
Kathryn Miskell - Sr Integrated Marketing Manager
Lily Devins - Brand Manager, SnApps
Nadia Eghbali - Associate Brand Manager
Matt Higgs - Community Manager/Always On Lead