2026 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

KitKat has one of the most iconic brand platforms in the world. Launched in 1957, “Have a break, Have a KitKat” established the brand as the go-to chocolate bar for anyone in need of a break. In the decades that followed, KitKat’s ongoing commitment to the platform has made it synonymous with breaks.

Nearly 70 years after the launch of “Have a break, have a KitKat”, the challenge for both the brand and its iconic platform is not awareness, but relevance. It’s hard to stay fresh when you’ve been around for so long.

KitKat has always stood for breaks, but one’s been hiding in plain sight all along: the dash.

KitKat turns the everyday dash into a KitKat bar – turning a piece of punctuation into a reminder to have a break.

The dash is a punctuation mark that represents a pause, a span of time or a break, and happens to be the same shape as the iconic KitKat bar. So, they replaced dashes with KitKat bars to create a visual reminder to “Have a break, have a KitKat.”

Launching across out-of-home, digital, social and streaming platforms, the campaign suggests breaks between 9-5, or in between flights like YYZ-JFK, while watching Netflix between Episode 8-Episode 9, and many, many more. It even showed up in real-time cultural moments like between Oscar announcements (Nominees-Winner) or after the KitKat heist between Italy and Poland (Italy-Poland).

With a simple change, KitKat Dash turned a common punctuation mark into a brand reminder to “Have a break” and breathed fresh relevance into the iconic brand platform.

This idea works because it understands how the audience behaves. Younger Canadians are hyper aware of brand messages that feel forced or removed from everyday life. Instead of interrupting people with a reminder to take a break, this campaign meets them in the moment: in-between episodes, during their commute, or in the middle of their work day. Each execution reinforces the same idea: the break – and the brand – is already there.

With a small media investment, the campaign earned 225 PR mentions and 3.6M impressions. In just the first few days, it was covered on all the leading industry publications – everything from The Drum to Ad Age and Famous Campaigns. Across markets and formats, the “Dash” idea strengthened brand recognition by proving that even the smallest gaps in daily routines can belong to KitKat.

Credits

Agency: Courage Inc
Founder + CCO: Dhaval Bhatt
Founder + CCO: Joel Holtby
Partner + CSO: Tom Kenny
Partner + President: Niki Sahni
Partner + Executive Producer: Clair Galea
Creative Director: Zuheir Kotob
Creative Director: Jason Soy
Art Director: Zuheir Kotob
Copywriters: Jason Soy, Steve Persico
Senior Producer: Sara Teasdale
Producer: Parker Wales
Senior Editor/Motion Designer: Marcus Barrie
Editor: Adrian Ryan
Senior Integrated Producer: Raquel Mullen
Senior Production Designer: Jeannette Downes, Ashleigh O’Brien
Group Account Director: Alex Karayannides
Account Director: Niharika Chadha
Head of Strategy: Rami Dudin
Strategy Director: Derek Mollenhauer
PR Director: Natalia Banoub

Client : Nestlé KitKat
Senior Vice President, CMO: Tracey Cooke
Vice President, Everyday Confectionery: Carm DaSilva
Senior Marketing Manager: Noel Spencer
Marketing Manager: Naomi Huisman
Assistant Marketing Manager: Danielle Weiss

Production: Eggplant Music & Sound
Executive Producer: Nicola Treadgold
Associate Producer: Nick Nadeau
Audio Director: Jamie Pennock
Engineer: Sarah Garcia-Sarria

Media: Omnicom Media Canada
Kristin Hands - Senior Director, Connections Planning
Emily Elliot - Supervisor, Connections Planning
Jason Lagance - Manager, Connections Planning