Companies go to great lengths to avoid faults in their products. We went to great lengths to create one.

Monteith’s wanted drinkers to know that their cider contains fresh fruit, not concentrated fruit syrup like their competitors. So we slipped real apple tree twigs into each box of Monteith’s cider. The twigs were taken from the actual orchards Monteith’s harvest their apples and pears. This ‘mistake’ spread our simple message: the fruit in Monteith’s cider comes from a tree, not a can.

Real twigs from Monteith’s orchards were slipped into the packaging of Crushed Apple cider and Crushed Pear cider 12 packs before they were distributed to liquor stores and supermarkets.

After 2 weeks, and with public complaining about the discovery of twigs in boxes via media and social media, a carefully crafted apology letter and box of twigged Monteith’s Crushed Apple Cider was sent to key influencers and media. The apology letter communicated a simple message: the fruit in Monteith’s cider comes from a tree, not out of a can.

The twigged boxes got Monteith’s all over the news and across social media. Radio stations took calls from drinkers who had found twigs in their cider packaging. Monteith’s call centre was inundated with enquiries. On a PR budget of $2,500, we generated over $120,000 of earned media. Over the campaign period, Monteith’s Crushed Cider sales increased by 32% and Monteith’s completely sold out of their 12 packs cider.