When Molson tasked us with launching Simply Spiked in Canada, our challenge was two-fold: first, we had zero awareness and lacked the Simply Juice equity that the U.S. benefited from. Secondly, our product was launching into an outdated category where legacy players have been the long-standing goliath: Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Palm Bay and Smirnoff Ice held a combined 70.6% market share at launch.

As creative lead, our idea needed to break through by proving that Simply Spiked is nothing like the others - we’re a champion for the unapologetic realness we crave but lack in our coolers, with each other and in culture, giving our audience permission to bring the juice to every aspect of their life by going there first. We aimed to rank among the top coolers in Canada, outpace sales goals for Simply Spiked at launch, and generate strong awareness and consideration among our target (+50%).

We showed our commitment to keeping it real by miniaturizing the technology of polygraph tests and putting it all in a Simply Spiked can, creating the world’s first lie detector in a can. The Keep It Real Can ensures that anyone holding it tells the truth (or gets caught in a lie) when asked about the everyday things Canadians are likely to avoid, and promote real conversations between friends.

AUDIENCE: Women 25-35 who believe honesty is critical to being themselves and cultivating true relationships, but are often swayed by the ease of artificial.

INSIGHT: Canadians pride themselves on being nice, but sometimes that’s artificial - over half have lied to avoid conflict or protect feelings.

KEY MESSAGE: Simply Spiked embodies the realness we all crave - by becoming an arbiter of realness, we can bring back the juice we’re missing.

To show that Simply Spiked exists to keep it real, we turned our can into the realness judge and jury by creating the first-ever lie detector in a can: the Simply Spiked Keep It Real Can. Using galvanic skin response technology and heart rate monitors we made sure anyone who held it was keeping it real. Through a combination of earned media, influencer partnerships, streeter activations, dOOH, paid social and sampling we sparked real excitement for Simply Spiked nationally.

• Placement/Scale - To ensure our message reached Canadians coast to coast, we had trusted reporters try the Keep it Real Can out. The Can was featured online, on broadcast, and radio showing off the first-of-its-kind technology and it was even featured on Love Island Quebec. We also worked with influencers, popped up at Canadian summer festivals, and had OOH across the country.

• Activation - The can was sent out across Canada to intercept our demographic where they work, live, and play.

• Data gathering & billboards- In addition to the data gathered from the can itself, we conducted a national survey to understand the little things Canadians avoid telling the truth about, then put the results on billboards local to where the info was gathered.

• Timeline- The campaign launched on June 1, 2023 and ran until August 31, 2023.

Live radio and broadcast coverage that produced segments from between 3 - 6 minutes, which is unheard of in the current media landscape

Outlet relevance score of 84%

97% key message penetration

217 million media impressions

• Target Audience Outcomes - measurable changes in awareness, comprehension, perceptions / attitudes / opinions, and target behaviours / actions / responses achieved

77% consumer awareness after launch campaign > legacy brand Mike’s Hard at 74%

60% consideration amongst aware consumers in year one

• Business Outcomes – campaign's measurable effect on sales / revenues / profits, market share, stock valuation, brand equity, reputation scores and other traditional marketing and business metrics

We effectively proved to Canadians that Simply Spiked brought realness to a fake category and got our audience keep it real with us. Audience outcomes included:

Top 5 cooler ranking in Canada

Outpaced sales goals by 40% during campaign

35,000 samples shared