2025 Winner
SilverBest in Consumer Goods
BronzeBest in Brand Integration
BronzeBest in Experiential/Stunts - Budget Over $100,000
Mentos
"Mentos Fizzooka"
Cossette Media
"Mentos Fizzooka"
Cossette Media
Mentos put mints on the map. But Gen Z knew nothing about that. For a generation living inside digital culture, the entire mint category was a fossil — an analog relic buried in their parents (or grandparents!) pockets. This wasn’t a sales challenge. This was a resurrection mission. They had to make Mentos visible, relevant, and culturally potent for a generation that didn’t even know Mentos existed.
But the agency couldn’t earn Gen Z relevance through the typical polite campaign. They needed to play the role of culture hijackers. This meant turning to a digital space where Gen Z identity, creativity, and community collide and thrive: gaming.
Conventional marketers would tell you gaming is a solo activity. But they’d be wrong. The agency’s research showed Gen Z Gamers are hyper-social — 72% more community driven and 21% more likely to seek connection with like-minded peers. Gen Z Gamers didn’t want to see ads — they wanted experiences to rally around.
To create the needed experience, they unearthed dormant brand equity — the iconic Mentos and cola reaction — and reimagined it for the digital battlefield. Enter The Fizzooka — a real, custom-built launcher that personified the explosive Mentos-cola reaction.
Then they turned to the core digital habitat of the Gen Z Gaming community: Fortnite. But not through a skin. And not with a brand placement. The agency designed and implemented a fully playable, explosive in-game launcher that put the Mentos Fizzooka directly into the hands of Gen Z. And created a custom Mentos website where Gen Z found exclusive Fizzooka codes that activated the launcher within Fortnite.
The agency engineered a three-stage campaign detonation designed to infiltrate Gen Z and help Mentos
explode into the mainstream.
Phase one was to Ignite Gamer Interest with the real-size, fully functional Fizzooka. They launched with a guerrilla stunt at Toronto Comic-Con — parking a truck outside the main entrance with a life-sized digital Fizzooka and a domination of Union Station. No logos. No booth. Just a provocation — the real-life Fizzooka was here for the Gen Z Gamer. Then they followed up with a social ambush, embedding their Fizzooka trailer deep inside Fortnite subreddits where gamer cred is earned, not bought. A 72-hour homepage takeover followed on Twitch, Canada’s most-watched gaming platform.
Phase two was to accelerate the hype. With the gaming core lit, the agency launched full-force across Reddit, Twitch, and YouTube mastheads.
Simultaneously, they unloaded a chaotic content wave from Canadian lifestyle influencers — equipping them with real-world Fizzookas. No reviews. No talking points. It was stunts, skits, and Gen Z chaos.
Phase three was to detonate Gen Z action. In this phase, influencers drove people to a custom website where they found exclusive Fizzooka codes that activated the launcher within Fortnite. This digital demand loop turned our campaign into a participatory event — fueling Fizzooka gameplay, UGC, and a new, growing army of Mentos evangelists.
This wasn’t a campaign — it was a collection of rule-breaking and culture hacking efforts that redefined what’s possible in CPG media.
The Ultimate Brand Integration — they didn’t sponsor a game. They hacked the Gen Z Gamer experience — making the Fizzooka a real, tactical launcher within Fortnite. The Fizzooka had unique gameplay — wiping out player builds — which made it genuinely valuable to players.
They engineered a perfect match between real and virtual. The real Fizzooka functioned with explosiveness, just like its in-game twin. Gamers watched the Fizzooka obliterate stuff through influencer content, then did the same thing with the Fizzooka in their hands in Fortnite. This was a stunt you could actually use.
Instead of a typical CPG mass media buy, they led with cultural credibility. By focusing on the Gen Z Gamer, the agency created brand authenticity for Mentos that earned attention that propelled their message upstream, not downstream.
Generating a nostalgic launchpad — they took a dusty viral moment from YouTube’s early days and turned it into a next-gen gaming artifact — proving that even old ideas can become launchers of cultural disruption when reimagined the right way.
In just three weeks, the agency created a cultural blast. Reddit chatter around Mentos exploded 410% as gamers rallied around their new in-game launcher. The Fizzooka earned national news coverage, generating 29 major media hits across outlets like CBC, CP24, and CTV — resulting in nearly $1M in earned media.
Their content blitz delivered over 25M impressions, driven largely by the influencer chaos it sparked. Most importantly, more than 225,000 Canadian Fortnite players used the Fizzooka in-game. Mentos wasn’t just seen — the brand was used.
They didn’t just bring Mentos back. They created a brand movement, making Mentos matter to an entirely new generation.
But the agency couldn’t earn Gen Z relevance through the typical polite campaign. They needed to play the role of culture hijackers. This meant turning to a digital space where Gen Z identity, creativity, and community collide and thrive: gaming.
Conventional marketers would tell you gaming is a solo activity. But they’d be wrong. The agency’s research showed Gen Z Gamers are hyper-social — 72% more community driven and 21% more likely to seek connection with like-minded peers. Gen Z Gamers didn’t want to see ads — they wanted experiences to rally around.
To create the needed experience, they unearthed dormant brand equity — the iconic Mentos and cola reaction — and reimagined it for the digital battlefield. Enter The Fizzooka — a real, custom-built launcher that personified the explosive Mentos-cola reaction.
Then they turned to the core digital habitat of the Gen Z Gaming community: Fortnite. But not through a skin. And not with a brand placement. The agency designed and implemented a fully playable, explosive in-game launcher that put the Mentos Fizzooka directly into the hands of Gen Z. And created a custom Mentos website where Gen Z found exclusive Fizzooka codes that activated the launcher within Fortnite.
The agency engineered a three-stage campaign detonation designed to infiltrate Gen Z and help Mentos
explode into the mainstream.
Phase one was to Ignite Gamer Interest with the real-size, fully functional Fizzooka. They launched with a guerrilla stunt at Toronto Comic-Con — parking a truck outside the main entrance with a life-sized digital Fizzooka and a domination of Union Station. No logos. No booth. Just a provocation — the real-life Fizzooka was here for the Gen Z Gamer. Then they followed up with a social ambush, embedding their Fizzooka trailer deep inside Fortnite subreddits where gamer cred is earned, not bought. A 72-hour homepage takeover followed on Twitch, Canada’s most-watched gaming platform.
Phase two was to accelerate the hype. With the gaming core lit, the agency launched full-force across Reddit, Twitch, and YouTube mastheads.
Simultaneously, they unloaded a chaotic content wave from Canadian lifestyle influencers — equipping them with real-world Fizzookas. No reviews. No talking points. It was stunts, skits, and Gen Z chaos.
Phase three was to detonate Gen Z action. In this phase, influencers drove people to a custom website where they found exclusive Fizzooka codes that activated the launcher within Fortnite. This digital demand loop turned our campaign into a participatory event — fueling Fizzooka gameplay, UGC, and a new, growing army of Mentos evangelists.
This wasn’t a campaign — it was a collection of rule-breaking and culture hacking efforts that redefined what’s possible in CPG media.
The Ultimate Brand Integration — they didn’t sponsor a game. They hacked the Gen Z Gamer experience — making the Fizzooka a real, tactical launcher within Fortnite. The Fizzooka had unique gameplay — wiping out player builds — which made it genuinely valuable to players.
They engineered a perfect match between real and virtual. The real Fizzooka functioned with explosiveness, just like its in-game twin. Gamers watched the Fizzooka obliterate stuff through influencer content, then did the same thing with the Fizzooka in their hands in Fortnite. This was a stunt you could actually use.
Instead of a typical CPG mass media buy, they led with cultural credibility. By focusing on the Gen Z Gamer, the agency created brand authenticity for Mentos that earned attention that propelled their message upstream, not downstream.
Generating a nostalgic launchpad — they took a dusty viral moment from YouTube’s early days and turned it into a next-gen gaming artifact — proving that even old ideas can become launchers of cultural disruption when reimagined the right way.
In just three weeks, the agency created a cultural blast. Reddit chatter around Mentos exploded 410% as gamers rallied around their new in-game launcher. The Fizzooka earned national news coverage, generating 29 major media hits across outlets like CBC, CP24, and CTV — resulting in nearly $1M in earned media.
Their content blitz delivered over 25M impressions, driven largely by the influencer chaos it sparked. Most importantly, more than 225,000 Canadian Fortnite players used the Fizzooka in-game. Mentos wasn’t just seen — the brand was used.
They didn’t just bring Mentos back. They created a brand movement, making Mentos matter to an entirely new generation.
Credits
Luke Southern - VP, Business LeadershipMarissa Cristiano - AVP, Digital
Kyle Sergeant - AVP, Strategy & Planning
Jackson Bergman - Media Planner
Robert Nicks - Digital Performance Supervisor
Yash Malhan - Performance Specialist
Malvika Rai - Associate Director, Programmatic
Matt Wong - Programmatic Account Manager
Divya Maheshwari - Programmatic Specialist