Sarah Sheppard - Copywriter

The Challenge:

Airlines have given pretzels a bad wrap. Outcast as a sad travel snack, painted as overly salty and painfully stodgy, the humble pretzel has fallen out of favour.

The Idea:

To flip pretzel perceptions and redeem their tip-tier travel snack reputation, we transformed a Queen Street West storefront into a terminal for the world's most flavourful airline: Snyder’s Airlines, where flavour takes flight.

The Activation:

Launching in the heart of Toronto, we created an immersive sampling experience offering free flights of Snyder’s of Hanover’s Pretzel Pieces with beer pairings from Flying Monkey Brewery. Coming to life with quirky touches that spoke to the brand's personality, like pilot commentary, a pretzel-themed souvenir shop, boarding passes and a pretzel baggage claim, Snyder’s Airlines took Toronto’s taste buds on an unforgettably flavourful adventure.

The Challenge:

Create an ownable campaign to launch the Galaxy Z Flip4 phone that inspires Gen Z to harness their creativity with the power of Samsung.

The Idea:

To get young Canadians creating with Samsung, we launched "Flex Your Design," an online contest that invited young creators to design a case for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4. To inspire their work, we collaborated with artists Pony, Mega McGrath and Ben Johnston. We followed their process in making their own cases to create inspiring content spread across social platforms.

The Activation: 

To engage participants even further, we created the Samsung Galaxy Studio, activating at the Mural Festival in Montreal. Inside, participants could create a design for the contest using Samsung devices and tech with three interactive experiences:

- The Artist Studio invited participants to create their case designs on Samsung devices before printing a poster version for a fun takeaway.

- The Photo Studio allowed participants to immortalize a picture of themselves with their masterpiece using Samsung FlexCam mode.

- The Digital Graffiti wall let participants make their mark on a 40-foot long LED screen using the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 as an interactive spray can.

The Challenge:

PC Financial tasked us with reaching people outside of their grocery store locations, acquiring new cardholders and educating Canadians on the rewards & benefits of their debit and credit cards in a way that was engaging and felt authentically PC. 

The Idea:

To educate and excite Canadians about PC Financial’s products, we created Beat the Shop Clock, a gamified truck tour experience that immersed consumers in a ‘shopping test drive’ of PC Financial credit and debit cards, risk-free. 

The rules of Beat the Shop Clock were simple: use any PC Financial card to maximize your PC Optimum points by grabbing as many items as possible within 30-seconds, then hit the buzzer at checkout for a prize.

Beat The Shop Clock gameplay began when players grabbed baskets that symbolized debit and credit cards, triggering the 30-second ‘shop clock’ countdown.

Players headed straight to mini-shop versions of iconic Canadian retailers like Esso gas stations and Loblaws grocers to fill baskets with items. 

With baskets full, players rushed to hit the checkout buzzer before the “shop clock” reached zero. At the finish line,  brand ambassadors called out the bonus points added to each purchase by the PC Financial card and handed out prizes. 

Afterwards, players were guided into the truck to discuss opening a PC Financial card account.

The Challenge:

Tim Hortons wanted to make a splash in the freezer aisle with their new line-up of Tims Ice Cream flavours, highlighting them as the most Canadian treats of the summer. 

The Idea: 

To launch Tims Ice Cream's classically Canadian flavours, we presented them as just that, Canada's flavours, now frozen. We created a campaign of fun, delicious, visual interpretations of each flavour in Canadian summer settings, set in the iconic Tims red world. Rolled out on social, digital, in-store and eComm, Canada's flavours, now frozen, gave Tims lovers across the country a new reason to scoop up their favourite sweet treat.

The Challenge:

Canada's #1 crackers brand needed to strengthen its brand equity around its brand purpose of "welcoming" with a uniquely Canadian insight while earning incremental retail display.

The Insight:

According to Gallup's Migrant Acceptance Index, Canada is the world's #1 most welcoming country for newcomers. For many Canadians, their introduction to other cultures happens through trying new cuisines. But with grocery prices on the rise, it's more expensive than ever to buy new ingredients for new recipes.

The Idea:

We partnered with multicultural Canadian influencers to inspire shoppers to expand how they welcome others through family recipes. To make it easier to stock up on the ingredients for each recipe, we gave out hundreds of grocery gift cards worth $100 and a grand prize of $1000. The program was fully rolled out in-store and online in English, French, and Chinese and also highlighted Indigenous cuisine through a partnership with influencer and model Willow Allen. The program was accepted by every major Canadian retailer.

The Challenge:

The bread aisle is notoriously beige and boring. Filled with lacklustre displays and uninspired packaging, the grocery store bakery section isn’t doing bread any favours. With declining interest in bread across Canada, ACE needed to give shoppers a reason to put it back on their tables. 

The Idea:

Love Every Bite is a campaign created to inspire Canadians to fall in love with ACE bread again, dialup the romance, and put bread back in the spotlight. We brought ACE’s passion for bread to life through mouth-watering stylized studio photography set against a dreamy colour palette crafted to complement each season. Love Every Bite is ACE’s love letter to bread, rekindling Canada’s romance with their products and putting freshly baked goodness back in carts.

The Challenge:

Ritz Minis are coming to Canada and want to make a grand entrance onto the snacking scene with a show-stopping billboard activation that puts the new product innovation into focus and perspective.

The Idea:

To give Ritz Minis the big welcome they deserve, we launched a series of massive outdoor billboards that feature huge headlines and true-to-size mini crackers. To give Ritz lovers a closer look, we've set up viewfinders aimed at the boards so passersby can catch a glimpse of the big news

Building on RBC’s Ideas Happen Here brand platform, we created three unique seasonal campaigns speaking to the financial needs of RBC clients during the spring, fall and winter months, brought to life through playful window displays and in-store messaging. 

While they may not be as polished as some of my client work, here are a few of my favourite spec projects I made in ad school.