2021 Winner
SilverBest in Experiential/Special Event/Stunts - Budget Over $100,000
Wendy's
"Grown With Love"
Initiative Media
"Grown With Love"
Initiative Media
Wendy’s had always sold a wide variety of salad options compared to its competitors, and in the summer of 2020, they had a big announcement planned: the lettuce for all of their salads would now be grown hydroponically in a greenhouse, producing higher quality lettuce that used a
fraction of the water.
At the same time, a University of Guelph study found that Canadians were increasingly gravitating towards comfort food, stress eating, and unhealthy menu options as a way of coping with the pandemic. It had also been over a year since Wendy’s had been in-market with any salad messaging, causing quality perceptions to begin eroding.
Research shows that when you speak to your plants it actually helps them thrive. So what better way to get consumers to care about Wendy’s Greenhouse Lettuce than to invite them to be a part of its growth by sharing words of encouragement?
There’s a growing trend in Canada where consumers are looking to better understand the story behind their food: what’s in it, where it comes from and how it’s produced. With increased importance being placed on local produce and sustainable farming, the agency identified they could gain more relevance by not only showing consumers the story behind their food, but by giving them a key role in that story as well. They invited consumers to become a part of the farming experience by influencing the growth of their food in a completely new way: by speaking to their lettuce.
The Grown With Love campaign began on Twitter with a series of Promoted Tweets & videos introducing the Greenhouse Lettuce story to consumers and inviting them to share some words of love and encouragement to help the lettuce grow. They enabled seamless participation through a variety of Conversation Cards and Twitter Polls that were targeted to Wendy’s fans and the fans of their competitors, making it easy to engage and maximizing the opportunity for consumer involvement.
Every day, tweets of love poured in from fast food lovers across the internet, and they read them to their lettuce over a loudspeaker and in-person at the greenhouse. All of the buzz and participation they generated led to one irresistible trend takeover event on Twitter, their “Lovestream”, which managed to get over 77,000 people to tune in live to watch lettuce grow, and see their tweets get read out loud. Finally, they brought the experience full circle by retargeting everyone who participated in the event with one final video showing them how critical their words were to the growth of the lettuce.
Wendy’s Grown With Love lifted positive sentiment for the brand by 30% and re-engaged Canadians with salad. The campaign was named by Twitter “The best campaign for making us all feel connected”. In a category experiencing no growth year over year, they successfully grew sales of salads by 23% and same restaurant sales by 8% across Canada. But ultimately nothing grew more than their lettuce, which produced the greenhouse’s highest yield ever, showing we all benefit from a little more love.
fraction of the water.
At the same time, a University of Guelph study found that Canadians were increasingly gravitating towards comfort food, stress eating, and unhealthy menu options as a way of coping with the pandemic. It had also been over a year since Wendy’s had been in-market with any salad messaging, causing quality perceptions to begin eroding.
Research shows that when you speak to your plants it actually helps them thrive. So what better way to get consumers to care about Wendy’s Greenhouse Lettuce than to invite them to be a part of its growth by sharing words of encouragement?
There’s a growing trend in Canada where consumers are looking to better understand the story behind their food: what’s in it, where it comes from and how it’s produced. With increased importance being placed on local produce and sustainable farming, the agency identified they could gain more relevance by not only showing consumers the story behind their food, but by giving them a key role in that story as well. They invited consumers to become a part of the farming experience by influencing the growth of their food in a completely new way: by speaking to their lettuce.
The Grown With Love campaign began on Twitter with a series of Promoted Tweets & videos introducing the Greenhouse Lettuce story to consumers and inviting them to share some words of love and encouragement to help the lettuce grow. They enabled seamless participation through a variety of Conversation Cards and Twitter Polls that were targeted to Wendy’s fans and the fans of their competitors, making it easy to engage and maximizing the opportunity for consumer involvement.
Every day, tweets of love poured in from fast food lovers across the internet, and they read them to their lettuce over a loudspeaker and in-person at the greenhouse. All of the buzz and participation they generated led to one irresistible trend takeover event on Twitter, their “Lovestream”, which managed to get over 77,000 people to tune in live to watch lettuce grow, and see their tweets get read out loud. Finally, they brought the experience full circle by retargeting everyone who participated in the event with one final video showing them how critical their words were to the growth of the lettuce.
Wendy’s Grown With Love lifted positive sentiment for the brand by 30% and re-engaged Canadians with salad. The campaign was named by Twitter “The best campaign for making us all feel connected”. In a category experiencing no growth year over year, they successfully grew sales of salads by 23% and same restaurant sales by 8% across Canada. But ultimately nothing grew more than their lettuce, which produced the greenhouse’s highest yield ever, showing we all benefit from a little more love.
Credits
Wendy’s Restaurants Canada (Client Team):- Lisa Deletroz – Marketing Director
- Ashley Peebles – Marketing Manager
Initiative (Media Agency):
- Ishma Alexander-Huet - VP, Client Advice & Management
- Raichelle Ursua - Group Account Director
- Emily Johnston - Supervisor, Communications Design
- Christina White - Senior Communications Designer
McCann (Creative Team):
- Josh Stein - CCO
- Bill Schaefer - Associate Creative Director
- Ihar Turtsou - Associate Creative Director
- Patrick O’Donovan - VP, Group Account Director
- Theo Wolski-Davis - Account Director
- Alexandra Lindsay - Account Supervisor
- Liam Brown - Strategy Director
- Tracy Luong - Producer
- Philip Dos Santos - Channel Manager
Ketchum (PR)
Wondermakr Ltd. (Production)
Studio Dialog (Production)
Craft (Production)