SUCCESS STORY
The fast-food restaurant chain partnered with Facebook Creative Shop and VICE to raise awareness of its ingredient guarantees through a Canvas placement and a series of video ads, resulting in a 6-point lift in message association.
- 22-pointlift in ad recall
- 6-pointlift in message association
THEIR STORY
The classic burger place
The first A&W drive-in restaurant opened in Winnipeg in 1956. Serving a combination of delicious burgers, onion rings and its famous root beer, A&W proved to be an instant hit and has since quickly multiplied across the nation.
THEIR GOAL
Appealing to millennials
A&W Canada wanted to increase awareness and message association with high-quality ingredients among millennials with a series of compelling videos made specifically for Facebook.
THEIR SOLUTION
A series of stories
To build awareness of its ingredient guarantees, A&W Canada partnered with Facebook Creative Shop and news outlet VICE through the Facebook Anthology program. The Anthology program is comprised of a group of leading video publishers, known for their unique storytelling expertise. Together with Facebook Creative Shop, Anthology partners produce custom campaigns to help brands meet their business goals. A&W Canada chose to partner with VICE because of its expertise in appealing to millennials.
Armed with the insight that millennials want to know more about the food they eat and where it comes from, A&W focused on the story of its ingredients. Together, the team ran a series of sequenced video ads and Canvas placements that complemented A&W Canada’s “The Future of Flavour” campaign, and visually communicated the brand’s ingredient guarantees.
The video ads took viewers through 4 sequenced phases, from A&W Canada’s ingredient stories about beef, chicken and bacon to limited-time sales offers. The co-created videos included conversations with up-and-coming Toronto chef Helena Yuu, Canadian beef ranchers and chicken farmers and a food scientist who uncovers why we love bacon.
A&W Canada targeted its campaign to millennials, using Facebook’s reach and frequency tool to help it manage how many people saw its sequenced campaign, and how often they saw it.
Finally, the restaurant chain conducted a long-term Nielsen Brand Effect study to measure the success of its 4-month campaign.
THEIR SUCCESS
A tasty ending
As the first company in Canada to use Facebook’s Anthology program, A&W Canada not only captured the attention of millennials, but also drove awareness and message association of high-quality ingredients. The campaign achieved:
- 22-point lift in ad recall
- 6-point lift in message association of A&W Canada’s high-quality ingredients
Facebook helped us break through with Millennials. Our guests want to know more about the food they eat and where it comes from, but we can’t reach all of them with TV advertising. Using made-for-Facebook content, we not only reached Millennials more effectively, but also shared a deeper and more engaging story that delivered results beyond what we’ve achieved with television alone.
Robert Cifarelli
Manager, Online Marketing and Mobile, A&W Canada
Products Used
Canvas
Use the full screen to bring your story to life.
Video Ads
Capture attention with engaging video ads.
Core Targeting
Select the right target audience for your ads.