The egg industry is one of the most misleading food industries in the world. On the supermarket shelf most eggs are labelled ‘Free Range’. But despite this wholesome name, ‘Free Range’ egg farms can legally have up to 10,000 chickens per hectare. This damages soil through overuse, reduces nutrition density of eggs and greatly affects the lives of chickens.

At Honest Eggs Co., we use regenerative practices on our farms to reduce land degradation and increase quality of life for our chickens. And with only 30 chickens per hectare we have a best in class story to share. But we needed a category redefining campaign to take on the industry.

Our key objective was to bring honesty to the egg industry. We set out to accomplish this by building conversation about our point of difference, increasing our customer base and increasing stockists of our product.

As a sustainable player in the egg industry, Honest Eggs Co. needed to educate consumers on how eggs are farmed and the impact their purchase decisions can make.

So we innovated the humble egg to carry an important message directly from the farm to the supermarket shelf.

To do this, we designed ‘FitChix’ - the world’s first step counter custom made for a chicken. Each week the device is put on a small number of chickens to track their movements as they roam freely around our regenerative farms. Their step counts are then printed directly onto every egg we sell and sent out to supermarkets nationwide.

Now every time customers shop for eggs they can see how free our chickens are and make a conscious decision to support sustainable agriculture.

At Honest Eggs Co. we’re committed to 100% transparency in everything we do. So it was only natural that this led the strategy for our ‘FitChix’ campaign.

Our target audience was ‘Free Range’ egg buyers. We needed to engage the sensibilities of this audience who’ve been led to believe that ‘Free Range’ eggs are the most ethical choice on the supermarket shelf.

Our strategy was simple, be honest and show consumers how free and healthy the chickens are on our regenerative farms. If we can gain the attention of consumers at the point-of-purchase and empower them to make an informed decision, we can change the industry for good.

Our approach was to raise awareness on social, drive consideration near premises through selectively placed digital OOH and influence decisions at the point-of-purchase.

We started by inventing the ‘FitChix’ device. Made from hen-friendly materials it features customised software and GPS tracking. These devices are put on a small group of our chickens each week to track their daily step counts.

We then piggybacked our existing printing process. For regulatory traceability, every egg on Australian shelves has a printed farm code. So, to deliver our message we switched this code with the step counts of our chickens.

On March 9th 2023, the ‘eggs with steps’ were delivered to 350+ stores across Australia. The 'steps' remain a permanent feature on every egg sold by Honest Eggs Co.

To create awareness and drive traffic to stores, we ran an integrated campaign across social, site specific OOH and earned PR.

We also made the device open source so every honest egg farmer around the world can use it.

The 'FitChix' campaign has completely reframed how people think about eggs. We’ve empowered consumers to make more sustainable egg purchases, greatly increased our presence in stores and propelled the business forward.

Within the first two months of the campaign going live, we saw a +493% increase in online conversation. And 38 million earned PR reach - connecting with over 148% of the Australian population.

In the first three weeks, purchase orders from existing stockists increased 40% which maxed-out our available supply. While sales revenue hit the limit and increased 25%.

We also got solid engagement from retailers with +222% new stockist applications.

Furthermore, one of the two largest supermarkets in Australia reached out to discuss how Honest Eggs Co. can spearhead their sustainable and regenerative range.

To continue to spread awareness, we’re going to keep doing what we do best. Sell honest eggs.

The ‘FitChix’ campaign had the unique challenge of working directly against the public

perception of ‘Free Range’ eggs. As evidenced by the following research, consumers have a positive perception of ‘Free Range’ eggs when compared to cage eggs.

“Qualitative analysis of focus groups and interviews involving 73 participants revealed that free-range and cage-free eggs are perceived as being better quality, more nutritious, and safer, and having better sensory characteristics, than caged eggs.“

Article by Heather J. Bray & Rachel A. Ankeny - Published 16 May 2017.

This lesser of two evils situation has allowed the Australian Free Range egg industry to remain stagnate and capitalise on the status quo.

Until 'FitChix' came along…