Cara Operations Inc.

Cara Operations-owned Swiss Chalet has become a Canadian institution with an iconic product – rotisserie chicken. BBDO was tasked with pushing that thought even further into the public consciousness and driving sales.

The agency approached this challenge by unlocking a simple truth about rotisserie chicken: watching it cook, slowly turning on a spit, is pretty compelling.

So Swiss Chalet created a world media first by buying an entire channel on Canada’s largest cable provider that just broadcast one thing: six chickens turning on a spit, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To drive interest, BBDO shot teaser videos that appeared on YouTube and Facebook. Once the channel launched, promotion codes were intermittently featured offering deals on chicken.

The campaign broke through online media outlet (and strategy sister site) Media In Canada. The word spread and “Swiss Chalet” and “rotisserie” became trending topics on Twitter. The agency used what the public was saying about the Rotisserie Channel to create a new online video, showcasing quotes from actual tweets. Next came a TV, newspaper, online and billboard campaign.

The goal was 10,000 coupon downloads over three months but in week one, 13,707 were downloaded, growing to 32,546 after three months. It received over five million “likes” from users, more than 28,000 new Facebook friends, 8,224 downloaded screen savers and chicken delivery orders went up 30% almost immediately. It was the number two trending topic on Twitter and has earned over 36 million media impressions.

At this year’s Cannes Festival of Creativity, the Swiss Chalet Rotisserie Channel won a Silver Media Lion.