Pilchards aren't sexy. But they are stuffed to the gills with brain-building omega-3 fatty acids. With just $1,000, John West needed to try to focus some public attention on how brilliant their pilchards can be for South African brains, and shift their product into the public's consideration set when deciding on their next protein purchase.

One opportunity was to somehow leverage the epic pilchard migration that happens off South African shores once every few years: the biggest biomass migration on Earth.

Early on, it was identified that the easiest way to create some tension was to be contentious. We sourced free footage of the sardine migration showing pilchards being hoovered up by great white sharks and used CGI wizardry to make it appear as though the sardines suddenly used intelligent coordination to form the shape of an even bigger great white shark to chase off the other sharks.

Then we got South Africa's biggest outdoor website to agree to host it for nothing.

There was amazement, trolls and heated debate before we released a second clip which clearly demonstrated that it was all just a bit of fun to show how genius-level John West pilchards are, how omega-3 fatty acids could benefit South African brains, and how pilchards could be endearing to the South African public.

Plus, to thank the website for being such good sports, we made a sizeable pilchard donation on their behalf to a local primary school in need with the help of a registered dietician.

We managed to source free footage of the sardine migration showing the poor creatures being hoovered up by great white sharks.

With a bit of CGI wizardry, we made it appear as though the sardines used intelligent coordination to form the shape of an even bigger great white chasing off the other sharks... And got South Africa's biggest outdoor website to agree to host this "anonymous" video. For free.

Then we sat back and watched the amazement, the trolls and the debate.

Before they could lose their nerve, we released a second clip which clearly demonstrated that it was all just a bit of fun to show how genius-level John West pilchards are, and how omega-3 fatty acids could benefit your brain. Plus, to thank the website for being such good sports, we made a sizeable pilchard donation on their behalf to a local primary school in need.

Heinz/John West has no social media presence in South Africa. The video campaign had to be negotiated using a social media platform with as much reach as possible. The involvement of the country's biggest outdoor publication (print and online) was negotiated at zero cost.

To grow greater awareness of the health benefits of Pilchards and omega fatty acids, a professional dietitian was utilised as an expert resource to address radio audiences and deliver the donation of thousands of tins of John West pilchards to a local underprivileged school - she provided her time and expertise at no cost, and represented John West through speaking about the health-giving benefits of pilchards.

The PR coverage report indicated an AVE Value of roughly $30,000, an exponential return in light of the budget. No sales data was shared.