We did this through creating The Houdini Menu – the world’s first vegetarian fine-dining experience grown from old sportswear. We partnered up with an expert to compost the clothes for six months and then cultivated the vegetables to create a fine-dining menu by star chef Sebastian Thureson. Guests were invited through a campaign in social media to take part of an evening where the fine-dining menu was served. A teaser campaign followed by actual invites and a lucky few got to experience the unique meal made of…well old sportswear. The project got attention in social media as well as in international press, and even better – the light was put on the importance of purity in the clothing industry.

To engage fans of Houdini, nature and food enthusiasts we used social media and launched in three phases:

1.Through a teaser film leading to a website, Houdini invited anyone to take part in a competition where you applied by motivating why you should be invited to a truly unique dinner experience.

2.The event, biodegrading- planting- and harvesting process was documented and made into three films, the main one being a short documentary explaining every step. The shorter films lead to the main website where you could read about the project, watch the full film, get the recipes and even the soil. It was all launched on social media and shared to relevant news media.

3.Instore we used the soil as a give-away when you purchased any of Houdini’s new biodegradable collections. The clothes came with a new washing label explaining how to care for, compost, grow and eat them.

We set out to find and connect with a few bold enthusiasts that wanted to experience a menu grown from old sportswear, but the event caught the attention of over 400 000 Facebook impressions and lead to over 250 applications in just five days.

With a total media budget of only €1000 distributed on sponsored ads on social media, this campaign exceeded all expectations making a small Swedish sportswear brand reach global press and engagement. The campaign was covered by numerous big global tech-, environmental-, trend-, food- and newsmagazines such as Food & Wine US, national French TV and BBC.

Based upon the coverage we've received, we've attained a reach of over 100 million people and increased brand mention by 450% in just two weeks. Houdini even decided to name their new, fully biodegradable collection after the campaign calling it “The fine dining tee”.