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Category
Innovation / Branded Content / Entertainment
Annual ID
ADC_ADV21_049B
About the Work
Wendy’s messaging has always been geared toward a younger audience. As a quick-service restaurant (QSR), young people — specifically 18- to 34-year-olds — present the biggest opportunity for growth. Therefore they’re also the target of our competitors messaging. This valuable audience is overstimulated, and therefore makes winning their loyalty a difficult task.
Gaming has become a primary source of entertainment for this generation. Whether it’s playing video games or watching others play games on social platforms like Twitch, this age group has pushed the gaming industry to become more popular than both movies and music combined.
Gamers, however, are their own unique audience, and they won’t welcome just anyone. They are the gatekeepers and rule-makers of their space, unafraid to call out inauthenticity when they see it. Instead of acting like a brand with paid sponsorships to reach gamers, we acted like a gamer.
Wendy’s gamed with our consumer and for our consumer.
Each week on Twitch we streamed gameplay, played with our fans and created custom branded in-game levels and costumes for the community in the most popular video games from Animal Crossing to Fortnite to Minecraft all centered around our use of fresh beef. Selling freezers in Animal Crossing, rescuing characters from freezers in Minecraft, and fighting frozen foes in fighting games. Beyond just playing we created Wendy’s themed levels in Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Smash Brothers Ultimate for players to download that were all about the brand.
Gamers ate up Wendy’s content. They spent more than 9.8 million minutes watching our gameplay on Twitch and downloaded our custom in-game content more than 988,000 times. We amassed such a following that we became the first verified restaurant account – placing Wendy’s in the top 1% of all streamers on Twitch.
Gaming has become a primary source of entertainment for this generation. Whether it’s playing video games or watching others play games on social platforms like Twitch, this age group has pushed the gaming industry to become more popular than both movies and music combined.
Gamers, however, are their own unique audience, and they won’t welcome just anyone. They are the gatekeepers and rule-makers of their space, unafraid to call out inauthenticity when they see it. Instead of acting like a brand with paid sponsorships to reach gamers, we acted like a gamer.
Wendy’s gamed with our consumer and for our consumer.
Each week on Twitch we streamed gameplay, played with our fans and created custom branded in-game levels and costumes for the community in the most popular video games from Animal Crossing to Fortnite to Minecraft all centered around our use of fresh beef. Selling freezers in Animal Crossing, rescuing characters from freezers in Minecraft, and fighting frozen foes in fighting games. Beyond just playing we created Wendy’s themed levels in Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Smash Brothers Ultimate for players to download that were all about the brand.
Gamers ate up Wendy’s content. They spent more than 9.8 million minutes watching our gameplay on Twitch and downloaded our custom in-game content more than 988,000 times. We amassed such a following that we became the first verified restaurant account – placing Wendy’s in the top 1% of all streamers on Twitch.
2021 Awards
Total Points: 9
Bronze Cube
Credits
Agency
VMLY&R / Kansas City
PR / Marketing Agency
Ketchum / Chicago
Client / Brand
Wendy's / Dublin
Media Distribution Company
Spark Foundry / New York
Art Director
Ben Grace
Ryan Woods
Associate Creative Director
Chad Ford
Conor Clarke
Chief Marketing Officer
Carl Loredo
Creative Director
Matt Keck
Global Chief Creative Officer
Debbi Vandeven
Group Creative Director
McKay Hathaway
Writer
Andrew Bohren
Associate Connections Director, Social
Samantha Schuster
Chief Creative Officer, Kansas City
Noel Cottrell
Chief Creative Officer, North America
John Godsey
Senior Copywriter
Jon Colon
Social Media Specialist
Kristin Tormey
Account Supervisor
Stefani Duhon
Associate Account Manager, Client Engagement
Adam Scherzer
Associate Director of Content
Kayla Englot
Associate Director, Client Engagement
Colin Belmont
Associate Director, Planning
Zach Leffers
Chief Client Officer, North America
Jennifer McDonald
Connections Manager
Carolina Mach
Josuha Smith
Connections Supervisor, Social
Jessica Wiggins Unverferth
Director, PR
Frank Vamos
Group Director, Client Engagement
Kelly Gartenmayer
Manager, Innovation & Data
Jeremy Cline
Managing Director, Client Engagement
Jason Bass
Senior Campaign Program Manager
Laura Picicci
Senior Connections Manager, Social
Emmy Hanlon
VP, Media & Social
Jimmy Bennett
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