2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

In January 2023, Wendy’s wanted to launch its new Homestyle French Toast Sticks in Canada. Unlike typical French Toast, the new menu item was made for eating on the go. Like that wasn’t maverick enough, the product was a bit of a departure from Wendy’s typical wheelhouse.

For a brand known for square burgers and bacon – and with a fraction of the market share and media spend of the competition – French Toast Sticks posed a unique marketing challenge to promote. The brand had to get the word out that Wendy’s now offers French Toast… in a portable stick format. Specifically, the agency wanted to increase positive associations with Wendy’s and Wendy’s Breakfast, get people to come into their restaurants to try the new French Toast Sticks, and then make them a habitual add-on to their on-the-go breakfast orders.

French Toast tastes better when you can eat it anywhere.

Wendy’s went where no breakfast launch has gone before; the subway. Surrounded by thousands of commuters who skip breakfast every day, they pulled out all the ‘stops’. A fancy breakfast setup, complete with a table, cutlery and a mysterious man who just really likes French Toast. French Toast isn’t something you can make quickly or easily. There’s a lot of set-up, cook time and ingredients to deal with. So, to show just how much of a hassle making French Toast is, they had the most ordinary guy they could find go and make French Toast on the subway. And then do it again. And again. Passers-by started filming him. Wondering aloud who this man was and, crucially, why he would make French Toast on a subway. Who is #FrenchToastGuy was trending.

Soon the media picked up on it. As the speculation and intrigue reached a fevered pitch, they sent French Toast Guy out one last time at the end of his French Toast-filled week, but this time with Wendy’s French Toast Sticks in-hand. Some eagle-eyed reporters caught on; and in their words “got the scoop of their careers”. Wendy’s was revealed as the perpetrator of the subway shenanigans. Busted. The agency created their own “influencer” to make eating French toast on-the-go a newsworthy event. All so they could introduce a better way to do it: Wendy’s New French Toast Sticks.

The agency didn’t just create a cult hero for the sake of it, there was a clear method to the madness of using #FrenchToastGuy to drive awareness of the Wendy’s French Toast Sticks product launch, and ultimately drive sales. And it worked. “French Toast Guy” earned 25.6m impressions in the first week, reached 243m people and the Wendy’s reveal video alone scored 1.8m views on TikTok.

Overall, the activation itself generated 96% positive sentiment online, with the remaining 4% probably slightly confused morning commuters. This moved Wendy’s overall brand sentiment score up from just 47% to 76%. Social channels and mainstream media alike were lighting up with talk of “French Toast Guy”.

Even the Toronto Transit Commission (who run the subway) put out a statement expressing their befuddlement: “Well he’s not waffling when it comes to his choice of breakfast foods, is he?” said senior communications advisor for the TTC, Stuart Green. More importantly than that, all the talk of French Toast turned into sales success for the launch, as Wendy’s Breakfast Sales Grew by 30%, driven by sales of Homestyle French Toast Sticks that were 192% higher than sales forecasts.

Credits

McCann

Josh Stein – Chief Creative Officer
Amy O’Neill – Creative Director
Bill Schaefer – Creative Director
Menna Toeima – Art Director
Elfreda Tetteh – Copywriter
Ethan MacDonald – Copywriter
Ingrid Kroboth – Agency Producer
AJ Jones – Chief Strategy Officer
Liam Brown – Strategy Director
Kira Segal-Pillemer – Junior Strategist
Alexandra Lindsay – Account Director
Patrick O’Donovan – VP Director of Business Leadership
Philip Dos Santos – Social Community Manager

Craft

Travis Wood - Head of Content
Leen Tangney - Line Producer
Rod Reano - Camera Operator (Video Editor)
Kristina Loschiavo - Camera Operator (Producer)
Alex Tong - Camera Operator
Praven Yoganathan - Camera Operator
Andrew Vance - Camera Operator


Initiative:

Ishma Alexander-Huet - Vice President, Client Advice & Management
Raichelle Ursua - Group Account Director
Emily Johnston - Manager, Communications Design
Christina White - Supervisor, Communications Design
Shubham - Supervisor, Communications Design
Dana Tartir - Communications Designer