We discovered that nearly 75% of Canadians had been disappointed by a bad holiday gift. So, we opened the Skittles Holiday Pawn Shop – a physical pop-up shop in downtown Toronto – where customers could trade those crappy gifts for something they could truly enjoy – Skittles!

The Skittles Holiday Pawn Shop opened in a vacated storefront on one of the busiest streets in downtown Toronto on Boxing Day 2015. For 5 days, thousands of customers brought in gifts and holiday items they didn’t want to trade for what they did – a grand total of over 52,000 bags of Skittles.

Two weeks prior to opening, we used press kits to media, online video, social (including influencer) content, print ads, wild postings and exterior signage on the storefront itself to drive awareness of the live pawn shop.

When the shop opened, we were able to bring elements of the media campaign to life. Visitors were thrilled to find “Dale the Dealmaker,” the star of the promo video, on hand negotiating deals. And YouTube superstar, Lilly Singh, who vlogged about “The Time I went to Skittles Heaven” to promote the shop, made an appearance to meet with fans.

In just a short period of time, and with a small media budget, the campaign earned a staggering 100 MILLION free media impressions, including coverage from Canada’s top 5 broadcasters. News of the stunt was far-reaching and requests poured in from people around the world to bring the shop to their city.

Lilly’s video had over 270,000 views, above average for posts on her vlog. And in an appearance on Jimmy Fallon after the campaign she gave a shout out to Skittles that was seen by millions.

During the 5 days the shop was open, thousands of customers traded unwanted items for over 3 million Skittles, making it Wrigley’s largest-ever sampling event. 3,300+ items were collected and donated to one of Canada’s largest charities.

With over 100 million impressions, 51,798 website visits and 2,720 visitors to the pawn shop, we exceeded our campaign goals by 203%, 420% and 120% respectively.