Bread. No matter how you slice it, it’s not just one of the most boring consumer categories, but one that’s cluttered with beige. That is until 2018, when Dave’s Killer Bread entered the Canadian market. But with limited to no consumer awareness, a non-existent traditional media spend, and a risk of being d-listed, the agency needed an idea that was just as unignorable as the brand itself. An idea that leveraged the brand’s strategy to ‘rebel ordinary’ to generate conversation on a nimble budget. With that goal, an unbread-like idea was born.

While most brands would launch in mass channels like TV and OOH, the team took a decidedly different approach. Rooted in the brand’s backstory as a recipe baked up in prison, not a bakery, they created a one-of-a-kind restaurant experience – Club Fed. Through the unique lens of its previously incarcerated founder, Dave Dahl, Club Fed invited affluent foodies to not just break bread with each other but help break the silence on a rarely discussed subject. Designed as a white-collar prison themed sandwich shop, the shop didn’t just serve sandwiches, but second chances. Not only did all proceeds go to charities focused on reintegration, but the entire restaurant was staffed by ex-cons. Aimed at disarming guests through humour and humanity, Club Fed featured a criminally delicious menu designed by top chef and advocate Marc Thuet, a visitor’s area where consumers picked up a phone to hear from real ex-cons, and an explorable cell inspired by Dave’s time on the inside. A bookable private dining room was created in which gourmet meals plated on prison trays were served through a slot in the wall, ensuring the food and experience were equally insta-worthy.

Despite popping up in only one market for two weeks – in the dead of winter – the story went national. Club Fed propelled Dave’s story, and the brand, into headlines across Canada with 40,000,000+ earned impressions across 63 pieces of coverage, exceeding the benchmark by 218%. And those who braved the cold to break bread loved it, with 96% rating the experience an excellent fit with the brand. It wasn’t just the immediate success of Club Fed that touched Canadians; in the end, one of the shop’s cooks gained full-time employment under Chef Thuet – his first job after twenty-six years behind bars.

Club Fed didn’t just garner impressions, it drove results. Dollar share within packaged organic bread grew 15pts in Toronto in the YTD period ending after the program was in-market, with share peaking during the 2 weeks of the activation compared to any period in 2019. Overall sales grew 40%, with 92% of sales attributed to base volume. Best of all, a 50% lift in purchase intent turned into a sales increase of 30% – exceeding the benchmark by 300% and securing the highest lift in the brand’s history.