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2026 One Show - The Indies

Tiny Float

Agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address / Brooklyn + Goldfish + Spark Foundry + Zeno Group

Client Goldfish

Category

Public Relations

Annual ID

OS26_ID046B

Background

Goldfish crackers have been beloved by American families for over 60 years. With its small size and small smile on each cracker, it was famous for its ability to draw a smile out of anyone - seeing it become a staple of the school lunchbox, the backseat of cars on road trips and swapped at school lunch tables.
In the 2020s Goldfish widened their market. From families exclusively, towards the growing young adult snacking market. Engaging them with Harry Potter partnerships, new dill pickle flavor variants, and buzzy attention grabbing stunts (like renaming Goldfish to Chilean Sea Bass to make it seem more sophisticated).
However, as wallets tightened throughout 2025 families cut their snack spending. Goldfish had to find a way to recapture the attention of this core family audience who was starting to look elsewhere. .
Because as much as Goldfish was a staple, sometimes a staple can fall out of mind.
And in fact, the largest reason for parents not buying Goldfish anymore wasn’t anything to do with price, flavor, or that their kids didn’t like it - 23% of parents said the reason they stopped buying Goldfish... is that they just forgot.
We needed to remind as many households with kids as possible that Goldfish brings the biggest smiles while also making the brand top of mind and impossible to forget at their next grocery run.

Creative Idea

Goldfish needed to make a splash.
To somehow show up at a time and place that families would be, and find a way to steal the show.
If only there was an event that 35 million people watched (the most outside of a sporting event) and was watched by primarily families…
Oh wait, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
But it's hard to stand out in an environment where every brand and entertainment brand is trying to make noise. We knew it was going to be an arms-race for entertainment; who can have the biggest float, biggest balloons, biggest celebrity moments to try and “win” the day.

Big. Big. Big.
Our idea.
Instead of going big, let’s go small. Very small. The smallest, in history.
Introducing the Littlest Float, the smallest float in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade history. Reflecting the simple truth at the heart of the Goldfish brand: sometimes the smallest things create the biggest smiles.

Measuring only 14 Goldfish crackers long, we hoped the playful unexpectedness would make parents laugh, and its small size would make children smile.

Insights & Strategy

Goldfish is known for its small size, its iconic smile, and the fact that it can bring smiles to the whole family.
Knowing we needed to break through, we couldn’t rely on saccharine cheesy smiles (there’d be enough of that already at the parade) we needed to draw a smile from the unexpected.
There are few moments in culture that parents and children tune in in equal measure, and we hoped that if parents would understand that the littlest things would create the biggest smiles, that they’d be reminded of their love of Goldfish.
At an event defined by excess, we saw an opportunity to zig while every other brand zagged. We leaned into Goldfish’s core brand truth coupled with a distinctive brand asset: smallest snack, creating the biggest smile.

Execution

Executed within just a six week production timeline, the Littlest Float launched quickly but made a huge impact.
Measuring just 14 Goldfish crackers long, the float was brought to life at a record breaking small scale. Its placement within the lineup maximized broadcast visibility going live at a prime time in the parade. It created a striking visual contrast against the towering floats around it ensuring people were quick to pay attention and the joke landed instantly for millions watching live and at home.
Beyond the live parade moment, we amplified the idea across 16 bespoke social assets designed to extend the messaging before, during and after parade day. We partnered with family friendly creator Janie Ippolito to amplify the float and messaging with behind the scenes content in the lead up and spotlight its debut in real time.
Additionally two key assets, one from @goldfish and one from our influencer partner, were strategically boosted to drive incremental reach.
Coverage of The Littlest Float also extended far and wide across broadcast coverage and earned media. The inherent charm of “the smallest float in history” made it highly shareable, driving organic conversation without heavy paid reliance and even led to a collaboration moment with Green Giant and a collaboration with RAM, whose toy truck helped pull the Littlest Float.

Results

What started as the smallest float in parade history became one of the biggest cultural splashes of the year.

The Littlest Float didn’t just make waves – it dominated the national conversation, capturing headlines and shifting the focus of parade coverage. In a spectacle typically defined by who can go biggest, Goldfish earned widespread attention for doing the exact opposite: going smallest.

The campaign generated 7.5 billion earned media impressions, fueled by extensive digital, social, and broadcast coverage. From headline features in top-tier national outlets including TODAY, AdAge, USA Today, and Fast Company to more than 500 segments across top DMAs nationwide, the fully integrated media moment reached audiences everywhere they consume content.

Beyond widespread broadcast momentum and national coverage, The Littlest Float campaign helped expand Goldfish’s media footprint and unlock fresh audiences. The campaign was mentioned in nine new media outlets that the brand has not been covered in previously – an especially notable achievement for a name like Goldfish, who is well accustomed to widespread media attention.

Social alone drove +1.7 million organic impressions, demonstrating the inherent shareability of the idea without excessive paid support. The campaign achieved a +90 net social sentiment score, making it one of the best performing initiatives in recent Goldfish history.

The Littlest Float became more than a campaign – it became a cultural story the media couldn’t stop talking about. After years of Goldfish expanding beyond family-focused moments, Goldfish successfully re-entered the conversation at the most important family moment of the year, reminding parents nationwide that when everyone else goes big, sometimes the smallest things truly bring the biggest smiles.


2026 Awards

Bronze Pencil

Credits

Agency

Mischief @ No Fixed Address / Brooklyn

Media Agency

Spark Foundry

PR / Marketing Agency

Zeno Group

Client / Brand

Goldfish

Director

Rebecca Venick

Strategist

Kate Thomson

Associate Creative Director, Art

James Leake

Associate Creative Director, Copy

Vanessa de Beaumont

Creative Director, Copy

Jenn Page

ECD, Partner

Bianca Guimaraes
Kevin Mulroy

Group Creative Director, Art

Danny O'Connor

Group Creative Director, Copy

Chase Doutre

Jr. Art Director

Abe Tullis

Jr. Copywriter

Mia Shumway

Senior Producer

Sam Moross

Social Strategist

Vicente Lugo

Account Executive

Sofia Tasolides

Account Executive, Earned Media

Kara McKiernan

Account Supervisor

Grace Engler
Morgan Miller

Assistant Account Executive

Kate Bantle

Associate Director

Jessica Yukich

Associate Director Social Strategy

Paige Zidek

Awards Director

Erica Watts

Business Manager

Elly Lupi

CCO, Partner

Greg Hahn

EVP, Strategy

Ed Gunn

Executive Vice President

Jamie Dammrich
Jennifer Byrnes

Executive Vice President, Earned Media

Courtney Pischke

Group Account Director

Lauren Lagasi
Nicole De Ravel

Head of Brand, Zeno US

Allison McClamroch

Head of Development

Oliver McAteer

Head of Production, Partner

Will Dempster

Head of Strategy, Partner

Jeff McCrory

Manager

Emily Perlman

Managing Director

Tyler Harris

President, Partner

Kerry McKibbin

Senior Account Supervisor

Marisa Ganley

Senior Account Supervisor, Earned Media

Georgia Goodman

Senior Vice President

Ebony Jones
Jason Kogut

SVP, Account Director

Lynn Fogarty

Vice President

Angeline Hunwick

VP Social Strategy

Tori Ofenlock

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