The ‘FitChix’ campaign takes the humble egg, a product that hasn’t changed since it was, well, first laid, and innovates it into a response-driven piece of creativity.

With the overwhelming majority of egg brands claiming to be ‘Free Range’, we needed to find a way to prove to consumers how free our chickens are. So we tracked our chickens and printed their step counts onto our eggs.

These eggs are delivered to supermarkets nationwide every week. So now consumers can make a more informed decision at point-of-purchase.

The egg industry is one of the most misleading food industries in the world. On the supermarket shelf you’ll see Free Range, Open Range, Cage Free, Nest Laid, Barn Laid, and Free Run eggs - the list goes on. Despite all these wholesome sounding names, a ‘Free Range’ egg farm can have up to 10,000 chickens per hectare.

At Honest Eggs Co. we only have 30 chickens per hectare. Our method of regenerative farming is less wasteful, reduces stress on the land, and is better for the chickens. We just needed more people to know it.

Our insight came when we wondered ‘What if we could create a better egg that showed people the conditions it was farmed in?’

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

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 remain stagnate and capitalise on the status quo.

Until 'FitChix' came along…

As a sustainable player in the industry, we needed to educate consumers on how eggs are farmed and why our methods are better than our competitors. So we innovated the humble egg into a media first to put an important message directly into the hands of consumers.

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 and to give customers an accurate understanding of how free our chickens are compared to other so called “free range” chickens.

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 during the printing process.

Now every time customers shop for eggs they can see how free our chickens are.

‘Free Range’ is the most popular egg category in Australia, making up 47% of total retail sales. Everyday consumers buy ‘Free Range’ eggs because they believe this to be the ethical choice. But as we know, ‘Free Range’ egg farms can have up to 10,000 chickens per hectare. Someone needed to step up and change the industry. And who better to do that than Honest Eggs Co.

At Honest Eggs Co., we’re committed to 100% transparency in everything we do. So that became our strategy.

To engage the sensibilities of ‘Free Range’ egg buyers, all we needed to do was be honest and show consumers how free and healthy our chickens are.

The 'FitChix' campaign was integrated into the existing production and distribution processes of Honest Eggs Co. This meant that all media channels were directly in support of the physical product sold on supermarket shelves.

After tracking step counts on Honest Eggs Co. farms we began the process of printing the first ‘eggs with steps’. The distribution of these eggs in bespoke campaign packaging took place on March 9th, 2023 to coincide with the campaign launch.

These innovative eggs were delivered to 362 stores across Australia and now remain a permanent feature on every egg sold by Honest Eggs Co.

To drive traffic to stores, we ran a small scale targeted integrated campaign across social and OOH in proximity to key retail stores. An earned media strategy saw our farmer booked for 7 x national broadcast interviews.

The FitChix device has been made open source for any farm to use.

The 'FitChix' campaign has created the greatest growth in consumer awareness and sales to date.

Within the first 2 months of the campaign going live, we saw a +493% increase in online conversation. Along with +174% increase in unique web visits. And 38 million earned PR reach - that’s over 148% of the Australian population.

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

And a 40% increase in purchase orders from existing stockists, meaning that demand outstripped supply.

And sales revenue increased 25% in the first 3 weeks of the campaign going live.

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

The most disruptive issue in the egg industry is inaction on sustainability. In Australia, the majority of all eggs farmed come from three big producers making any shift in market challenging. These egg farms thwart the attempts of progressive egg farmers who pursue more sustainable practices.

With a population that overwhelmingly believes any ‘Free Range’ egg is a good egg, it was time for Honest Eggs Co. to lift the lid and share the honest truth. By adapting our product we could tell a brand story our competitors couldn’t. This strategy helped educate consumers to make better choices and set the industry on a stable path to more sustainable outcomes.