2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

For many years, Black Diamond Cheestrings has held a strong position in the market. But with aggressive competitive pricing strategies, innovation in snacks and pandemic lock downs, the brand was losing share. It needed to inject some excitement into the brand and connect with Canadians on an emotional level to elevate the product above commodity status and combat market effects.

For 30 years, Black Diamond Cheestrings has advertised to children. But research shows that nearly half of its consumers didn’t have children in their household. Instead, they were Millennials who grew up on the fun snack in the 90s. This was an opportunity to capture a large audience that had been passed over for
younger generations. But how?

Studies show that by 45 years of age, 40% of adults say that the very “concept of fun” had ended completely for them. Life had become so serious; they no longer gave themselves permission to be released from the pressures of being a grown up—to transcend back into their childhood and just have fun. So, it set out to re-write the agreement on play for Canadians. That Black Diamond Cheestrings is
the invitation needed to release your inner child.

It launched the new platform for “Keep It Cheesy” on August 2nd, 2022, with a giant, unignorable billboard at Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto, tying it to a familiar theme for many Millennial professionals—the cafeteria lunch trade. The stunt was the very first step in a broader campaign for Cheestrings that was followed up
with a TV spot, OLV, social and more OOH.

The billboard was intentionally designed to look like an online classified ad soliciting trade offers for a single Cheestring. Then it did the unthinkable… the billboard went unbranded (gasp!), and it consciously tried to keep it as low-fi as possible (double gasp!). No one could know that Black Diamond was behind the ad otherwise it would raise suspicion and run the risk of people not playing along. They included a phone number and hired an actor to play the role of 48-year-old professional
trader Angel Domingo to field the calls.

And it was a big hit. The campaign garnered 245 million earned media impressions, including 67 pieces of earned coverage off of one single billboard. Major media outlets like Global News, CityNews, HuffPost, Narcity, and the New York Post that picked up the billboard story showed the product on-air or in their publications, reminisced about eating them as kids and discussed what they would trade—all unprompted. When all was said and done, the billboard brought in more than 1,000 offers ranging from a Shaquille O’Neal rookie card to someone’s mom.

But at the end of the day, they knew what they had. Nothing was good enough to trade and they didn’t accept any offers—not even the yacht they were offered.

Credits

Campaign Title: For Trade: One Cheestring
Client: Lactalis Canada Inc.
Brand: Cheestrings
Vice President, Marketing - Cheese & Tablespreads - Lactalis: Sabrina Zollo
Marketing Director, Black Diamond & Tablespreads: Enrique Larez

Creative Agency: Broken Heart Love Affair
Chief Business Officer: Beverley Hammond
Creative Directors: Jordan Hamer, Spencer Ryan
Writer: Jordan Hamer
Art Director: Spencer Ryan
SVP Strategy: Kristy Pleckaitis
Integrated Producer: Demi Veselinovic
Junior Producer: Olivia Cousineau
VP, Client Success: Joline Matika
Supervisor, Client Success: Annabel Harding
Production Designer: Daniel Ong

Casting: Mann Casting

Media Agency: Epitaph