2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

In 2021, both McDonalds and Tim Hortons started promoting expensive, global celebrity sponsorships with the likes of BTS and Justin Bieber. They were massive successes, earning each competitor a flurry of fame and market share and leaving A&W, a national player with a substantially smaller marketing budget,
on the defensive.

Additional, long-term factors conspired to make it difficult for A&W to defend market share. Tim Hortons and McDonalds have 2x the media budget of A&W. Tim Hortons has 3,500 locations across the country and McDonalds has 1500 compared to A&W’s 1000. The country was also facing unprecedented inflation – a precarious position to be in as A&W was perceived to be the least affordable in the category.

A&W needed to compete with celebrity meals without a celebrity meal, on a smaller retail footprint and smaller media budget. Brand research conducted earlier in the year revealed that nostalgia was an untapped lever for growth that A&W hadn’t touched in a decade.

Nostalgia is a strong growth driver for the category overall, but the brand had neglected it in favour of messaging around quality ingredients. The brand searched social conversations amongst existing A&W customers that could spark an idea for a nostalgic act. There was one thing that stood out: an irrepressible cult following building around the Whistle Dog, a menu item that was discontinued in 2017. A humble hot dog topped with sweet relish, cheddar cheese, and bacon – had captured the imagination of thousands of nostalgic fans – from keyboard warriors to radio jockeys.

Since its discontinuation, these fans badgered A&W’s social media pages, started a change.org petition, called into radio shows, created dupe recipes, and wrote fan songs with the hope that A&W would one day bring back the Whistle Dog.

This provided A&W with two opportunities. The chance to activate pent-up nostalgia for their brand. As well as making the deliberate choice to give voice to real, authentic fans rather than big-name influencers. When superficial celeb collaborations dominate, nothing is more powerful than avid endorsements from real die-hard fans. Rather than pay flashy celebrities, turn A&W fans into celebrities by bringing back their nostalgic cult favourite: the Whistle Dog.

The campaign rolled out in three phases: 1. Start with A&W’s core: Surprise their network of diehard fans with A&W’s spokesperson, Allen, and get them to share their excitement online. Stars of the campaign, the people who fought to bring the Whistle Dog back, were treated as influencers and encouraged to post about the campaign on their own social channels. The hero moment of this phase was Allen’s surprising Dustin Neilson and Lieutenant Eric on TSN1260, two prominent Edmonton radio hosts while they were live on air. 2. Bolster A&W’s efforts with an earned media blitz. On July 25, 2022, the day of the Whistle Dog’s return to A&W restaurants across Canada, A&W published a press release on Canada Newswire announcing the campaign. In tandem, proactive pitching began to Canadian media outlets covering food and beverage, lifestyle, and QSR brands. Virtually every media outlet across the country picked up the story of a ragtag group of dreamers who fought to bring back their favorite hot dog to their favorite fast food restaurant. 3. Amplify with paid media to further extend their reach. The moments of surprise captured with Allen were edited into OLV and social video content with media investment.

The results of this plan were $5 higher average cheque for orders with Whistle Dog, compared to orders without, defended and grew Q3 dollar share from 14.6% to 14.7% year over year, the Whistle Dog became one of the best-selling LTOs of all time at A&W, matching Beyond Meat at 122 orders per 1000 at its peak and sales of the Whistle Dog in 2022 tripled the sales of a smaller 2017 regional test in Manitoba and Saskatchewan where the local advertising and POS were product-focused and did not feature fans. The search volume for Whistle Dog was also double that of the Biebs Brew and Tim Biebs launches in March and search volume for “Whistle Dog” surpassed searches for “taylor swift” in its first week of launch.

Credits

Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Chief Strategy Officer: Sean McDonald
Executive Creative Director: Morgan Tierney / Leia Rogers
Creative Directors: Bob Simpson and Pam Rounis
Associate Creative Director: Jordon Lawson
Art Director: Ashley Visvanathan
Writer: Thom Peters
Strategist: Sam Massooleh
Director of Broadcast Production: Laura Rioux
Broadcast Producer + Line Producer: Sarah Vingoe
Production Coordinator: Natalia Urquiza
Production Company: R+D Productions in association with Anthill Films
Director: Bob Simpson
Editor: Megan O'Connor, Leigh O’Neill, Rob Forbes, Bradley Smith
Post Production House: R+D Productions
Audio House: Wave Productions Ltd.
Account Services: Tianna Fung
Client Supervisor: Amanda Wang, Claire Western