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Category
Stunts & Activations
Annual ID
OS23_SM094M
About the Work
In January 2023, Wendy’s introduced its new Homestyle French Toast Sticks to Canada.
Our plan was to show just how difficult it was to enjoy French Toast on-the-go, and then how easy it becomes with Wendy’s new Homestyle French Toast Sticks.
So, we created French Toast Guy. He went where no breakfast launch has gone before; the subway. Surrounded by thousands of commuters who skip breakfast every day, we pulled out all the ‘stops’.
And as anticipated it didn’t take long until people noticed. 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 and started asking the same questions. Even the Toronto Transit Commission put out a statement expressing their befuddlement.
Just as the speculation and intrigue reached a fevered-pitch, we sent French Toast Guy out one last time, but this time with Wendy’s French Toast Sticks in-hand.
Some eagle-eyed reporters caught on and Wendy’s was revealed as the perpetrator of the subway shenanigans. Busted.
Now, we 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 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 generated 96% positive sentiment online, with the remaining 4% probably slightly confused morning commuters.
More importantly than that, all the talk of French Toast turned into sales success as Wendy’s Breakfast Sales Grew by 30%, driven largely by on-the-go in-app orders increasing by 74.8%.
2023 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
Credits
Agency
McCann Canada / Toronto
Art Director
Menna Toeima
Copywriter
Ethan MacDonald
Chief Creative Officer
Josh Stein
Creative Director
Amy O'Neill
Bill Schaefer
Producer
Ingrid Kroboth
Account Director
Alexandra Lindsay
Camera Operator
Alex Tong
Andrew Vance
Praven Yoganathan
Strategy Director
Liam Brown
Agency In-House Production
Craft / Toronto
Associate, Communications Design
Dana Tartir
Camera Operator (Producer)
Kristina Loschiavo
Camera Operator (Video Editor)
Rod Reano
Chief strategy Officer
Aj Jones
Group Account Director
Raichelle Ursua
Head of Content
Travis Wood
Junior Strategist
Kira Segal-Pillemer
LINE PRODUCER
Leen Tangney
Manager, Communications Design
Emily Johnston
media
Initiative
Senior Communications Designer
Christina White
Social Community Manager
Philip Dos Santos
Supervisor, Communications Design
Shubham
Vice President, Client Advice & Management
Ishma Alexander-Huet
VP, Director of Business Leadership
Patrick O'Donovan
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