Cannes Lions

Cheerio Challenge

LIFE OF DAD, Burbank / GENERAL MILLS / 2017

Awards:

1 Silver Cannes Lions
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Case Film
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Overview

Entries

Credits

OVERVIEW

Description

Have you ever been stuck with a sleeping infant on your chest? Anyone who's been in that situation knows that there's no way to move without waking the baby...which is something you do not want to do.

A dad named Patrick Quinn found himself in that very situation in June of 2016. He was trapped with his infant son, Max, asleep on his chest, so to pass the time, Patrick began stacking some nearby Cheerios on Max's little head. Patrick took a photo of his Cheerio stack and created a meme informing the world of his new invention, the Cheerio Challenge.

With in an hour of the meme's posting, thousands of people were taking part in the Cheerio Challenge. Dads around the world began submitting photos of their Cheerio stacking handiwork. A few hours later, news and media outlets began covering the Cheerio Challenge, and the trend took off.

Execution

We began the #CheerioChallenge hashtag on all social media channels, and soon #CheerioChallenge began to trend on Facebook and Twitter. We then coordinated social media efforts with General Mills and the Cheerios brand around the themes of fatherhood and parenting fun, and as the Father's Day weekend began, the phenomenon took off around the world.

The #CheerioChallenge was featured by media outlets everywhere, including the Today Show, CNN, Good Morning America, Buzzfeed, Cartoon Network, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and hundreds of others. With our effective collaborative work with the Cheerios brand, the #CheerioChallenge garnered massive media and online attention over Father's Day, generating terrific word of mouth and natural user-generated activity around the brand.

Over the next few days, the #CheerioChallenge was soon adopted by many of the world's most popular celebrities, including The President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Outcome

Working with the brand to ride this wave of viral excitement was absolutely tremendous. Over the Father's Day weekend of 2016, the #CheerioChallenge generated over 375 million impressions, over 250 major media placements and over 3.5 million social engagements.

For Cheerios, the #CheerioChallenge was the best user-generated interaction they could ever hope for. Additionally, the #CheerioChallenge led to a large amount of social good. It helped put a spotlight on the importance of fatherhood. Dads might not always act the same way that moms do, but kids need their dads greatly involved in their daily lives.

From late night television to publications world wide, the #CheerioChallenge was a viral sensation that showed the importance of fatherhood, and it was the largest spike in brand-awareness for Cheerios or any General Mills cereal brand in recent years.

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