2021 Winner

BronzeBest in Augmented/Virtual Reality

The Hershey Company
"Reeseter Virtual Egg Hunt"
UM & Anomaly
Easter is one of Canadians favourite holidays, celebrated by millions. For many, it is a prized annual event characterised by bunnies, baby chicks, painted eggs, and the hunt for chocolates.

Being Canada’s #1 chocolate brand, Reese should have been able to claim a rightful place in consumers’ Easter baskets. However, that was not the case! 66% of households didn’t even think about buying Reese when shopping for Easter. The chocolate brand struggled to sustain seasonal relevance and remain top of mind during this holiday season.

To make matters worse, COVID-19 ensured that Easter-lovers’ fun and excitement came crashing down for two seasons in a row. Canadian families were forced to celebrate within the confines of household walls without experiencing the thrill of Easter Egg Hunts.

Reese faced a tough challenge to boost brand relevance during Easter, despite an on-going pandemic and the absence of the usual chocolate consumption-boosting rituals of Easter holiday celebrations. In order to solve a real consumer dilemma and put Reese on the Easter map, the agency decided to use the power of media and leverage Augmented Reality to bring the coveted Easter Egg Hunt safely home. They wanted to integrate Reese into the key Easter tradition of the Egg Hunt to establish its seasonal relevance. But they had to make consumers experience this thrill without stepping outdoors.

They created the Reeseter Virtual Egg Hunt – an Augmented Reality led virtual Egg Hunt that was accessible to every consumer owning a smartphone. They partnered with the leading social media platform, Snapchat, to leverage their augmented reality technology to bring this bold, audacious idea to life. In order to boost seasonal sales, they created an immersive full funnel experience for consumers from awareness, to experience and, finally, product purchase.

Tapping into consumers’ desire for an Easter thrill, in partnership with Snapchat, they created Canada’s First Virtual Easter Egg Hunt.

In Easter 2020, they delighted consumers with the country’s first gamified easter world lens which was a category first innovation. Users could virtually engage in a custom Augmented Reality game to find and collect Reese eggs for a chance to win free Hershey products, mimicking a real-life
traditional Easter egg hunt.

In order to build excitement leading up to the holiday, users accessed the game via targeted carousel and deep-link Snap Ads for two weeks prior to Easter. On Good Friday, they executed a 1-day national lens takeover to fortify Reese’s connection with the holiday.

Easter 2021 was made even more exciting by providing richer engagement and e-commerce capabilities. More challenging levels were added to the game to strengthen engagement and
make it more thrilling.

Collection Ads strategically directed the users to their choice of e-retailers, including Walmart, Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore & Amazon.ca, to accelerate online sales and complete the purchase loop. To boost on-ground sales and connect the physical and digital worlds, they also built an innovative partnership with Circle K stores. To enhance offline to online transition, they printed Snap codes on the Hershey displays in Circle K Stores that directed consumers to the virtual egg hunt.

The campaign was a stunning success, with the Reeseter Virtual Egg Hunt overachieving business goals and performance KPIs. Reese secured its role as a delightful new champion of the Easter tradition, and strengthened relevance. The campaign elevated the brand imagery scores by 2.1x
above the benchmark.

The campaign drove outstanding business success, propelling sales and market share beyond targets. There was 27% increase in sales revenue and the market share increased to 49% (+2.7pts). The campaign drove massive engagement, 3x higher than benchmark with an Average Lens Play time of 33s. There was a 390% ROAS in E-commerce inspiring Canadians to buy Hershey Easter goodies online and generating outstanding ROI.

If Reese wasn’t on people’s Easter radar before, the Reester Virtual Egg Hunt sure got them talking! The campaign earned 49M impressions in the form of massive earned media coverage. The overwhelming response to the campaign guarantees that Canadians will continue to have something EGGstra-special to look forward to next Easter! Results are confidential.

Credits

HERSHEY
Senior Marketing Director – Jackson Hitchon
Senior Marketing Manager, Seasons – Ola Machnowski
Marketing Manager, Seasons (Valentines & Easter) – Alex Fitzgerald
Marketing Manager, Seasons (Valentines & Easter) – Rebecca Paddock
Assistant Marketing Manager, Seasons – Susanne Hartkorn

UM
VP, Client Business Partner – Kate Mateer
Senior Director, Connections Planning – Joanna Janisse
Director, Connections Planning – Ratna Shankar
Senior Connections Planner – Brooke Goldenberg

REPRISE
Associate Director – Kitty O Kennedy
Associate Director – Rachel Pearson
Senior Campaign Manager – Ignacio Valls
Senior Campaign Manager – Sarranya Surendran

ANOMALY
Executive Creative Director / Partner, Pete Breton
Associate Creative Director, Marko Pandza
Associate Creative Director, Jason Kerr
Art Director, Kennedy Choi
Writer, Jenai Kershaw
Art Director, Charlie Letourneau
Writer, Lexie Hoffmeyer
President, Managing Partner, Candace Borland
Head of Client Services, Bryden McDonald
Business Director, Erin Wilbur
Account Executive, Lauren Zaitz
Account Executive, Alexandra McCaldren
Account Supervisor, Jacqueline Lam
Strategy Director, Joshua Crost
Agency Producer, Kate Spencer
Director of Social Media, Jennifer Stack
Social Media Strategist, Haley Hunter
Social Media Strategist, Stefanie Jesney
Editor, Rebecca Gruhin
Editing Company Producer, Shane Yuhas

SNAPCHAT
Lead, CPG Partnerships, Stef Mallaci
Senior Account Manager, Maia Tozer
Creative Strategist, Matthew Shore
Creative Strategist, Tessa Yin