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.

The Skittles Holiday Pawn Shop allowed fans to Experience the Rainbow in a way they never could before. We created an engaging and talk-worthy campaign where fans could interact with the brand and demonstrate their unabashed love for the colourful candy locally in Toronto or nationally through our website.

Skittles is a quirky brand that entertains the masses by twisting the ordinary. In this case: a twist on the classic North American pawn shop where the currency was Skittles. Combining this twist with a grounded insight in unwanted holiday gifts allowed us to speak to T13-17 but relate nationally to all Canadians.

Locally we targeted our demo with print, social & video to drive them into the store and nationally we ran social (including influencers like YouTube superstar iisuperwomanii) & video to drive to our microsite, which gave users across the country a chance to appraise their holiday gifts and receive a coupon.

Skittles wanted to increase their top-of-mind awareness during the holidays – a time when traditional candy takes over. They needed an idea that would not only compete against traditional holiday candy, but one that would cut through the clutter of all holiday advertising.