In 2012, Wendy’s Canada introduced Poutine to its menu. In many ways, the poutine is no different to the product being sold at other QSR’s. However, Wendy’s Poutine is made with sea salt seasoned fries, real cheese curds and a traditional brown sauce.

Wendy’s was late in the game when it came to poutine. Virtually every other QSR already had a poutine product on their menu, and Canada was experiencing a surge in niche and upscale “poutineries.” As the last entry into an already crowded market, Wendy’s market share, at the outset of the launch, was zero. This was a new product introduction and the QSR needed to make a lot of noise to gain the attention of customers.

On top of increasing sales, the brand also wanted to increase its Facebook presence. It was still new to the social media channel, with very few fans and very little engagement.

 Wendy’s new product launches are often supported with production budgets, but in the case of the poutine launch, agency MacLaren McCann had less than $300,000 for everything from creative to production to media. The agency needed to create a hard-working, non-traditional campaign that would strike an emotional chord, create buzz and drive action.

The specific goals were to stimulate conversations in the social space and grow the Facebook fan base from less than 16,000 to 50,000. In addition, the brand wanted its share of voice in social conversations related to poutine to increase from 7% to 20%.

Canada has a national sport, a national animal, but no national dish. So with a limited budget, the agency created and launched a “Poutition” to have the meal named the national dish of Canada.

The Poutition lived on the Wendy’s Canada Facebook page where people could “like” to sign the appeal. The agency also created a YouTube manifesto video, wrote the history of poutine and developed a line of Poutition merchandise (t-shirts, buttons, lawn signs, etc.).

To drive store traffic and encourage sampling, the brand gave out poutine coupons to all participants. In addition, the in-store POS signage featured QR codes that connected users to a mobile version of the Poutition allowed them to sign it via their mobile device. The bilingual campaign was also supported by a national radio spot, a digital media buy, localized OOH, and end-slate on a TV spot as well as community management.

The campaign exceeded all objectives and helped redefine the role of social media for Wendy’s Canada. Followers on the brand’s Facebook page increased by 279% (from 15,917 to 60,247 “likes”) and share of voice in social conversations related to poutine jumped to 63%, surpassing the initial goal of 20%. The campaign generated over 17 million media impressions, receiving press coverage across Canada and the U.S.