When Oscar Mayer launched their new Butcher Thick Cut bacon, they needed to raise awareness and prove they had the best bacon on the market. Since our research showed that there are more online conversations about bacon than about Kanye West, Tom Cruise and Lady Gaga, our objective to focus the buzz around Butcher Thick Cut.

We knew people loved bacon and we knew our new bacon, packed as thick as a brick of gold, was the best. So, we set out to prove that it could take the place of currency. We sent ordinary guy Josh Sankey on the road without cash or credit cards, just a pickup truck and refrigerated trailer carrying 3,000 pounds of bacon. He had to barter his bacon for everything he needed along the way—and asked people for help through social media.

Thousands of people live-bartered with Josh for the essentials: a couch to sleep on, a home cooked meal, a tank of gas. As the journey took off, the offers became more outlandish. Josh bartered bacon for a real tattoo, fire-breathing lessons and coveted tickets to NFL Opening Day. For a handful of bricks, he even got the mayor of Cedar City, Utah to change the town’s name to Sizzle City for a day.

By the time Josh reached LA, his journey had become a cultural phenomenon. Behind massive social engagement and thousands of stories in the press, Oscar Mayer became America’s most talked about bacon brand, generating 336 million earned media impressions and more online buzz than its four biggest competitors combined.

Our goal was to raise awareness for the new Oscar Mayer Butcher Thick Cut bacon across the U.S. and win over bacon-lovers and connoisseurs – the most sophisticated aficionados that are also the most likely to talk about bacon in online spaces.

By the time Josh reached LA, he had physically bartered 2,168 bricks of bacon with over 1,000 bacon-lovers across 3,125 miles. The offers included the essentials – a couch to sleep on, a homecooked meal, a tank of gas – as well as more outlandish barters, like bacon in exchange for a real tattoo, fire-breathing lessons and coveted tickets to NFL Opening Day. For a handful of bricks, Josh even got the mayor of Cedar City, Utah to change the town’s name to Sizzle City for a day.

The campaign became a cultural phenomenon, driving more than 336 million earned media impressions, with media outlets including The New York Times, The Huffington Post, USA Today, ESPN and NPR covering Josh’s journey. Conversations about Oscar Mayer doubled during the campaign, and the brand saw a 41% increase in positive sentiment. Oscar Mayer became America’s most talked about bacon brand, generating more online buzz than its four biggest competitors combined.

We recreated the classic American cross-country odyssey using only our bacon and social media. We enlisted a regular guy, Josh Sankey, to serve as our unlikely hero who would field and make barters via social media along the way.

To ensure the call for barterers reached the masses, we partnered with a leading digital lifestyle publication to promote the effort and used influencer marketing to seed the story, teaming up with key online influencers in the food, travel and entertainment verticals. Most importantly, we planned for the unplanned. Our campaign would inherently be dictated by consumer participation, so we set ourselves up to be nimble in a real-time environment. This involved exploring hundreds of scenarios in advance and structuring our team accordingly so we could be ready for anything.

The Oscar Mayer name is synonymous with hot dogs – but it’s such a nostalgic brand that people often consider it as being a brand for children. When Oscar Mayer introduced its Butcher Thick Cut bacon product, they wanted to prove that this bacon – packed as thick as a brick of gold – could more than satisfy the adult palate.

Our research showed us that in the U.S. there are more online conversations about bacon than there are about Kanye West, Tom Cruise and Lady Gaga. Bacon is one of America’s biggest online celebrities. Beyond the sheer volume of bacon conversations, social listening and analysis revealed an untapped sub-culture of bacon fanatics who share their love of the food in digital spaces. To this group, bacon is more than simply a favorite food—it is something to be celebrated and talked about.

The volume of consumer interest in bacon and the degree of passion for bacon online set up a perfect scenario for Oscar Mayer to enter the conversation. So, we challenged bacon-lovers across America to prove their bacon passion by answering a simple question: what are you willing to trade for some Oscar Mayer Butcher Thick Cut bacon?