VMLY&R, BCW & Mindshare: Honest Eggs Co.’s FitChix

‘Free range’ is the most popular egg category in Australia, making up 47% of total retail sales. Everyday consumers automatically buy ‘free range’ eggs because they believe this to be the ethical choice. What consumers don’t realise is that the ‘free range’ label is used by egg farms with up to 10,000 chickens per hectare.  

Honest Eggs Co. only has 30 chickens per hectare. Its method of farming is ecological, creates a great product and results in a profitable business. But consumers couldn’t separate it from the big egg producers hiding behind misleading labels. So, VMLY&R came up with a simple idea – what if they could create a better egg that showed people the conditions it was farmed in?  

VMLY&R collaborated with Airbag to create ergonomic, chicken-friendly fitness trackers that don’t impose on the day to-day life and behaviour of the chickens. 

The new product, FitChix, is the first use of health-tracking technology made specifically for chickens. Honest Eggs Co. monitors the vitals of its chickens, and eggs in Australian supermarkets have displayed the step-counts of the chickens who laid them. 

By putting fitness trackers on its chickens and printing their step count on their eggs, it transformed its core product and called out every other brand of eggs on the supermarket shelf.  

To create awareness and drive traffic to stores, Honest Eggs Co., VMLY&R and BCW ran an integrated campaign across social, site-specific OOH and earned PR. They 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 and empowers consumers to make more sustainable egg purchases, thereby greatly increasing Honest Eggs Co.’s presence in stores and propelling the business forward. 

Within the first two months of the campaign going live, there was a +493% increase in online conversations. And over 46 million earned PR reach led by BCW – connecting with over 179% of the Australian population.  

In the first three weeks, purchase orders from existing stockists increased 40% which equalled available supply. While sales revenue increased 25%, there was also solid engagement with retailers, with +222% new stockiest applications. 

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