Diamond Shreddies

Research showed that Canadians loved Shreddies but had forgotten about them. Since the brand had last spoken to consumers in 2002, the category had changed dramatically, with a proliferation of new products and highly successful line extensions. To grow awareness and volume, “Make people think about Shreddies again” became Ogilvy’s communications mission.

The answer came out of an invitation from Post to redesign the back of the cereal box: a faux “line extension” that simply turned the squares 45 degrees. This fun package idea became the nucleus of a complete communications plan that was implemented with a straight face. TV drove to diamondshreddies.com for recipes, a contest, an interactive game and videos of actual focus groups testing the product. At shelf, shoppers found limited-edition boxes of Diamond Shreddies.

Huge debate ensued, with endless blog postings and videos on YouTube including rants and parodies. A fan even put “the last square Shreddie” for sale on eBay, leading to a three-page article in Maclean’s.

The campaign had phenomenal breakthrough. On brand communication recall, Shreddies scored over 50% higher than key competitors. Sales in the months following the campaign’s airing continued to show baseline increases vs. the prior year. In its first four months, it surpassed all industry standards with 54 million audience impressions, 265 stories and awards including Gold and Grand Clios, Young Guns Gold, D&AD, One Show Bronze Pencil and a Titanium Cannes Jury Special Mention.