The Campaign

Companies go to great lengths to avoid faults in their products. We went to great lengths to create one. Monteith’s wanted drinkers to know that their cider contains fresh fruit, not concentrated fruit syrup like their competitors. So we slipped real apple tree twigs into each box of Monteith’s cider. The twigs were taken from the actual orchards Monteith’s harvest their apples and pears. This ‘mistake’ spread our simple message; the fruit in Monteith’s cider comes from a tree, not a can.

Success of the Campaign

The twigged boxes got Monteith’s all over the news and across social media. Radio stations took calls from drinkers who had found twigs in their cider packaging. Monteith’s call centre was inundated with enquiries. Over the campaign period, Monteith’s Crushed Cider sales increased by 32% and Monteith’s completely sold out of their 12 packs of cider.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

As cider boxes came off the production line at the brewery, a simple twig was slipped inside. The boxes were then distributed to supermarkets and liquor stores throughout the country. After two weeks, and with public interest at its peak, a carefully crafted apology was published in the paper. Apologies also appeared in the form of patched billboards, online banners and on-pack stickers. Every apology became the perfect platform to spread our ‘fresh fruit’ message.