Nando’s challenge was to launch their new Mango & Lime chicken into a crowded competitive market filled with big spending advertisers.

We decided on a big stunt - To steal the world’s biggest mango.

A three storey high, 10 tonne Big Mango tourist attraction in Bowen – Australia’s biggest mango producing region.

Phase 1 – Stealing the Big Mango

After taking the Big Mango in a midnight raid, media releases and content we created went out through Tourism Bowen. We prepared their Chairman with pre-planned responses to every media question we could imagine.

The missing Big Mango created an instant media frenzy. 12 hours of phone interviews ensued on day one alone.

Phase 2 – Nando’s Confess

Nando’s were ready to take ownership of the stunt at any stage. And after 2 days of intense media and social hype, we did. This created yet another media and social frenzy. Nando’s media releases went out with video footage of three giant mobile cranes taking the house sized Big Mango. In just 4 days, over 3000 media reports were tracked. The story reaching over 25,500,000 people. Australia’s population is only 22,000,000.

Phase 3 – Mango & Lime Launch

After generating so much publicity, it was time to turn talking into tasting. A giant big mango replica was built and placed in Melbourne’s CBD. Nando’s launched the new flavour with a massive taste testing. The new flavour launch resulted in the most talked about new product launch in Nando’s Australia’s history.

Sun 23/2/14

AM - “Before” photos taken of Big Mango

PM - Cranes/engineers start Big Mango removal

Shoot security footage of mystery crane and hooded figure

Mon 24/2/14

AM – Shoot “After” shot

Missing Mango media release from Tourism Bowen with “Before/After” pics

Media starts calling Tourism Bowen

Noon - Updated media with security footage of suspect

Launch Bowen’s Big Mango Facebook page

Tues 25/2/14

AM – shoot Bowen local interviews

Social media - Seed memes, security footage, photos and interviews.

Queensland Tourism shares news

Tourism Bowen continues to field media calls

Wed 26/2/14

AM – Nando’s confesses via media release and through social media.

Video showing how we did it released to media and social.

Nando’s PR team fields media calls

PM – Melbourne event media alert sent

Thurs 27/2/14

AM - Big Mango replica appears in Melbourne CBD.

Nando’s conducts 6 hour taste testing of new product.

With Nando’s budget, media projections showed a radio advertising campaign would struggle to reach 1 in 10 people in just five Australian cities.

With the same budget, the Big Mango Heist created a nation-wide media frenzy. Over 3000 reports were tracked in just 4 days, according to an independent media audit.

The news even went global reaching over 50 countries.

It was the #1 trending topic across Australia in social media.

Over 1,220,000 people viewed our Big Mango Facebook content within the first two days.

News through Queensland Tourism’s Facebook page was shared with their million plus followers. And millions more, including politicians and celebrities posted, shared, tweeted, and talked about it.

The campaign reached 25,562,331 people in four days.

(Australia’s population is only 22 million!)

Over $13million worth of publicity was earned in Australia alone.

And we extended Nando’s media budget reach by over 900%.