Bacon is the Holy Grail of American food indulgences, but people aren’t particularly choosy about what brand of bacon they buy. Oscar Mayer bacon is known for its quality and value, but it’s situated at a tricky price point: a dollar more than budget store brands yet less expensive than gourmet offerings. The brand must work to remain top-of-mind with bacon enthusiasts, so they are more apt to choose premium brand Oscar Mayer in the aisle.

On the heels of two very successful and inventive brand initiatives – “The Great American Bacon Barter” and “Say It With Bacon” – Oscar Mayer was challenged with bringing home the bacon a third time. Being down 2.1% in distribution at the shelf while the overall bacon category distribution was up 6.7% at the end of 2013 however put Oscar Mayer at an 8.8% gap (which translates to an $8.8 million dollar disadvantage) of growing its sales faster than the competition compared to the same time period in 2013.

To move product in the grocery aisles, we’d need to stand out as the better bacon worth the extra dollar. Oscar Mayer couldn't just buy people’s attention; it had to earn it from the moment they woke up.

We challenged the CPG category with a digital only campaign that would get people talking about Oscar Mayer bacon by connecting it to the unmistakeable sensory experience of cooking bacon in the morning. The result was the world's first and only alarm clock app and device that lets you "Wake Up & Smell the Bacon.”

Through nine months of R&D, we blended a custom bacon scent, prototyped a device to deliver it, and developed an accompanying alarm clock app. To promote the product, we created a web video parodying the ridiculous, whimsical tone of contemporary fragrance ads, encouraged fans to apply to win a limited edition device, and seeded devices with reporters and influencers.

Demand for the exclusive product was explosive, as more than 300,000 people entered to win and 67,000+ people downloaded the app. A hot topic in the press, it garnered 520 million+ earned media impressions, making Oscar Mayer the most talked-about bacon brand in America. In spite of Oscar Mayer's competitive disadvantage, it sold an additional 2.7 million pounds or 13.7% during the campaign period compared to the prior year while the category was only up 4.2%, becoming the standard of digital marketing at Kraft.