Most Australians know this little red bottle. But they don’t know much about it. It’s hard to pronounce, the flavour hard to describe and the ingredients, pure mystery. Not to mention its shelf life seems infinite and the history of the one-legged captain who invented it is worthy of a Netflix series.

While previous generations liberally splashed it on every dish, in modern Australia it has become a curiosity. And that’s exactly how we want it to stay.

A campaign that’s as curious as the sauce itself. Everything about Holbrooks Worcestershire Sauce is a bit of a mystery, so we thought its advertising should be too. Shouting about features or benefits would be off brand, so we decided to playfully pique the interest of curious Australians.

We asked them to think, to join the dots, and for those who did, we made an important and valuable connection. For those who didn’t, well they probably weren’t going to buy it anyway.

We created cheeky and thought-provoking headlines matched with playful illustrations on the iconic red and yellow arched label - with no logo or pack shot. Some posters were easy to ‘get’ while others were a little more challenging and designed to pique interest and make people think.

We also made sure executions were carefully placed on the path to purchase ensuring more than one was seen at a time, while the hashtag led them to a microsite and Instagram account where more clues lived to continue this curious journey.

- 4% growth above category

- 26% increase in product sales during campaign period

- 39% lift in engagement in social (3,679% increase on food and beverage industry benchmark which sits at 1.06%) and an 1366.6% increase in mentions of #whatsthatsauce.