The brief was to raise money and awareness to support Foodbank in delivering emergency food relief and breakfast programs to hungry children across Western Australia after the Government cut funding to the charity by $323,000 per annum just a month before Christmas.

The aim was to fill the funding gap created by the funding cut to ensure food relief programs weren't cancelled and to raise awareness of the growing hunger crisis in the country - with more than 1 in 5 children experiencing food insecurity each year in Australia.

The total budget - $15,000 AUD.

We created a new cereal brand, called Hungry Puffs – The breakfast over 100,000 West Aussie kids wake up to every day – nothing.

In the lead-up to Christmas, entirely empty boxes of Hungry Puffs were stocked in over 40 major supermarket cereal aisles across Western Australia.

Grocery shoppers who were in the process of buying food for their own families were suddenly encouraged to support a much bigger cause – and help feed children who go without breakfast every day.

To turn a box of nothing into something, shoppers simply had to purchase Hungry Puffs at check-out along with their weekly groceries. Every $5 box provided 10 children with their next meal.

Competing with a clutter of charities advertising in traditional media channels in the lead up to Christmas, Hungry Puffs used the supermarket shelf as a launch pad for PR attention.

We convinced over 40 major supermarkets throughout the state to give up valuable shelf space, creating a ‘moment of truth’ when shoppers who were buying food for their own families were suddenly encouraged to support a much bigger cause and help feed kids that go without breakfast every day.

Creating this unexpected moment in an unexpected environment was key to the campaign’s success.

Despite being an empty box, we treated Hungry Puffs as you would any new retail product and looked for ways to stand out in a busy supermarket environment in the lead up to Christmas.

We studied other cereal brands packaging and design techniques, deciding to use a series of popular cereal brand tropes, but with a stark, black and white design, and a few dark twists – like the creation of a ‘sad child’ character and an empty bowl.

Convincing over 40 major supermarkets across Western Australia to give up valuable shelf space was key to ensuring the campaign was big enough to make a real difference.

The campaign was further supported by an online store, in-store sampling stands (bowls of nothing), a low budget TV, print, radio and social media campaign that gathered support from celebrities, politicians, influencers and food bloggers throughout Australia and across the world.

In 4 weeks, the Hungry Puffs campaign resulted in the creation of 625,770 meals for Western Australian children and raised $312,885.

62,577 boxes of Hungry Puffs were sold.

Donations to Foodbank also more than doubled during the campaign period. Receiving 2.4 times more donations on the previous year (2017 to 2018).

Hungry Puffs produced a 1973% return on investment for Foodbank - on a total campaign budget of $15,000 AUD.

The positive attention and publicity gained from Hungry Puffs helped overturn a proposed government funding cut. Instead the government agreed to double their funding over the next four years.

Foodbank has just reached an agreement with a major supermarket chain which will see Hungry Puffs stocked in a further 208 stores across the state by the end of 2019.