You are reading a deep dive into the insight and ideas that propelled the winners of the 2019 AToMiC Awards to success. For the full list of winners, visit the AToMiC website, and be sure to check back for more deep dives into this year’s award-winning work.
This article appears in the March/April 2019 issue of strategy.
The Win: KFC’s “Bitcoin Bucket” by Grip Limited
Gold Social
Often perceived as old-fashioned and traditional, KFC needed a buzz-worthy campaign to increase online engagement. With a shoestring budget of only $15,000, the campaign needed to work hard in order to break through.
For the last few years, people have been interested in Bitcoin. But where do they spend it all? Marrying crispy fried chicken with the digital cryptocurrency, KFC and Grip began to sell buckets for Bitcoin as part of a unique campaign. A Facebook Live tracker showed the standing price for the KFC bucket of chicken, which fluctuated in price along with that of Bitcoin.
Fans went nuts, creating crypto-chicken memes and interacting with KFC through social comments. The brand earned 6.6 billion media impressions, receiving coverage from over 200 media outlets. Not only that. It sold out of Bitcoin Buckets, every single day. And in just two weeks, KFC went from ‘old-fashioned’ to being on the cusp of the future of digital transactions.
Introducing a new gen to Terry Fox
The Win: The Terry Fox Foundation’s “Millions of Followers” by Grip Limited
Bronze Shift
The Terry Fox Foundation had its own perception challenges: it too needed to convince younger Canadians about the importance of the cause that Terry Fox fought for – and how it continues to live on today.
Grip modernized the organization’s message by taking archived footage of Fox during his famous marathon run, and combined it with a crowd cheering his name and the message, “0 Likes. 0 Posts. 0 Shares. Millions of Followers” – which acted as commentary on our social-media obsessed world.
The campaign also extended into a Canada-first collaboration with Square Technology, where people could tap their credit or debit card to donate to cancer via a digital board in Toronto.
The spot blew up, receiving over 48,000 likes, 16,000 shares, and 6.3 million impressions. And, most importantly, year-over-year online donations were up 45%.
