While some brands choose to make a big splash in a little pond, McCain is going in the opposite direction. To launch its new Jumbo Crinkle Fries, the frozen food brand is turning giant billboards, transport trucks, and even plane banners into jumbo coupons for savings on its new bigger-than-average fries.

“When it comes to retail, there’s one promotional tactic that still reigns supreme — coupons,” Michael Embir, marketing director at McCain Foods Canada, tells MiC. “But often, coupons get overlooked, end up in the trash, or in the spam inbox. Knowing that driving trial of this new Superfries innovation was a main objective of our brief, we took inspiration from the jumbo size of the new Jumbo Crinkle Fries to create coupons that were impossible to ignore.”

Starting last week, and running until December 10, McCain’s jumbo coupons will appear in locations across Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, as well as on social media, with the campaign already having gained over 34.5 million impressions. Each jumbo coupon will feature a scannable QR code or website URL. Once scanned, participants are taken to a landing page where they can enter their email address to redeem a coupon for savings or free McCain Jumbo Crinkle Fries at their local grocery store.

Different cities will receive their coupons in different ways. In Toronto, the coupon will be flown as a banner over the city on November 21, from 11 AM to 2 PM. In Montreal it appeared as a bat signal at 458 McGill St on the evening of November 15. And in Vancouver, consumers can spot one at Vancouver City Centre Station, between November 12 and December 10. McCain will drop 50 giant coupons in all.  

“This is not necessarily a departure of what McCain has done in the past, but rather a different approach, with more emphasis on OOH given the nature of the creative concept,” says Embir. “By leveraging unique, large-scale formats beyond traditional OOH posters, this approach aligns with the goal of being bold while encouraging trial.”

The media mix also includes streetcar wraps, static murals, wild postings, as well as OLV and social ads via Meta and TikTok. UM handled the media buy for the campaign, while Rethink is behind the creative.