A chocolate company had 12 tonnes of chocolate stolen. Another company’s game was copied for years. A cosmetics brand’s product got the most painful criticism a brand can receive, on Reddit. And all three companies turned it into their best marketing story.
Three stories from Cannes Lions 2026 show the same pattern: the best campaigns are not born from a brief, they are born from problems that would normally trigger a call to a lawyer or a crisis communications agency. KitKat, Clash Royale, and Dove chose a different approach and made lemonade out of their lemons.
1. KitKat: The Stolen Chocolate
Background
On 26 March 2026 a full lorry-load of KitKat chocolate was stolen from a road near Turin in Italy. 12 tonnes, or 413,793 bars. They were limited-run Formula 1-shaped KitKats due to reach Polish shelves before Easter. The thieves pretended to be police and hijacked the lorry.
It happened a week before Easter, when confectionery sales peak. For KitKat it was a supply chain and logistics nightmare.
Campaign Description
KitKat could have kept the theft quiet and dealt with it privately. They did the opposite. First they publicly admitted they had been robbed and said the thieves had taken their slogan “Have a Break” too literally and made a break for it.
Then came the second move. On 2 April KitKat launched the “Stolen KitKat Tracker” online. Anyone could enter the 8-digit batch code from their KitKat wrapper and check whether their bar came from the stolen consignment. Millions of people started checking their KitKats. 2.2 million people used the Tracker. Three suspicious codes were identified and one led police to the actual theft.
The agencies Burson London and VML London did all of this with zero euros spent on media.
Results
224 million dollars in earned media, and nothing paid for media. Search interest in KitKat grew 600% in a week. Daily views jumped from one million to 29 million. Brand conversation grew 508%, which is over half a year’s normal activity packed into one week.
Over 6,000 articles appeared in 93 markets. On Meta platforms KitKat held 44% share of all conversation over Easter, almost three times its nearest competitor. And then one more thing happened: 115 other brands started playing along organically. Domino’s joked about a KitKat pizza. KFC said it was testing KitKat as its “12th herb and spice”. British Airways and Ryanair commented. Every brand’s post was free advertising for KitKat.
Cannes Lions 2026: PR Grand Prix, 4 Golds, 4 Silvers, 2 Bronzes. 11 Lions in total.
2. Clash Royale: The Copycats
Background
Clash Royale is one of the world’s most popular mobile games. Supercell, a Finnish company, has developed it for over a decade. And for over a decade copycats have made clones of it: Boom Arena, Jungle Clash, Clash of Wizards, and dozens of others. Same characters, same mechanics, same arenas, just worse quality.
Normally a company in that position sends its lawyers. A copyright infringement claim, then court, then the game comes off the internet. Supercell looked at it from another angle: millions of people are playing the clones. That means they want the Clash Royale experience. They just have not found the real game yet.
Campaign Description
DAVID New York created the campaign “Copycats Welcome”. In the film, a portal pulls Clash Royale characters into clone worlds where they meet their cheap versions: “Bash Royale”, “Space Royale”, and so on. The characters fight their badly drawn copies and escape back to the real game.
But the film was only the start. Supercell opened the site copycatswelcome.com, where players from clone worlds could bring their progress across to Clash Royale. The process was deliberately simple: answer a few questions about your clone world experience, download Clash Royale, and get a reward.
Results
2.3 million players came over from clone worlds in five days. To a game over ten years old. Supercell’s annual revenue is around 3 billion dollars and every new player is a long-term revenue source, because the game earns from in-game purchases.
Cannes Lions 2026: Entertainment Lions for Gaming Grand Prix.
3. Dove: Honest Reviews
Background
Dove Intensive Repair 10-in-1 Serum Hair Mask. A ten-dollar hair mask. Dove was confident about the product but had a problem: nobody believes brands’ own claims on social media any more. Beauty conversations on Reddit grew 71% in a year, with users going there for honest feedback because they are tired of advertising narratives and AI-generated reviews.
Campaign Description
DAVID London and AKQA Paris did something bold. Dove posted on Reddit asking users to review its hair mask honestly. And promised to publish the first 50 reviews exactly as written, unfiltered.
Everything came in. “Please don’t ever change this product!!!!!” sat next to “I hate the smell, it’s like an old lady”. Dove published both. All 50 reviews went up as outdoor advertising on the streets of New York. The bad ones and the especially bad ones. A pop-up at Manhattan’s Flatiron Plaza put giant Reddit reviews next to product samples. People queued for an hour to get a free mask and photograph the reviews.
Results
Over a billion earned impressions. Sales grew over 100%. Dove Intensive Repair became the best-selling hair mask in the US. For ten dollars.
Cannes Lions 2026: 6 Lions, including Gold in Creative Strategy and Gold in Social & Creator.
Strategy: What the Three Have in Common
The problem became the product. KitKat did not hush up the theft, they turned it into a game. Clash Royale did not sue the copycats, they routed them into a recruitment programme. Dove did not delete the bad reviews, they put them on billboards. All three made the same decision: instead of hiding the problem, they made it the core of the campaign.
Zero euros on media. KitKat bought no advertising time. Clash Royale bought no banners on gaming portals. Dove bought no Instagram ads. All three gave the media and the public a reason to talk on their own. For KitKat that was 115 brands reacting organically. For Clash Royale, 2.3 million people migrating to the original game themselves. For Dove, the Reddit community writing the content on the brand’s behalf.
The audience got a role. KitKat turned people into detectives: check your chocolate’s batch code. Clash Royale turned clone world players into heroes: bring your progress over. Dove turned Reddit users into critics: write your review, we will publish it. Nobody was a passive viewer. All three campaigns gave the audience a specific action and a reason to take part.
Criticism
Is KitKat staging crises? The theft was real and police are investigating it. But the campaign’s speed, theft on 26 March, Tracker ready by 2 April, raises the question of whether the reaction was spontaneous or whether a crisis plan was already written. That is not necessarily bad. Good brands are prepared for crises. But “spontaneous” and “prepared” are two different stories in marketing.
Clash Royale’s progress transfer ran on the honour system. Players did not have to prove they actually came from a clone world. They answered a few questions and got the rewards. That means some of the “transfers” were probably ordinary new players who just wanted free things. 2.3 million is an impressive number, but the percentage of genuine copycat players is unknown.
Dove used the reviews outside the Reddit community. Dove took Reddit reviews and put them on billboards. The campaign did not happen organically inside the Reddit community. Dove borrowed Reddit’s credibility. That was smart, but also a calculated choice.
Lessons Learned
1. A crisis is free media. KitKat got 224 million dollars of coverage because a large quantity of goods was stolen from them. An ordinary KitKat Easter campaign would have got a fraction of that, if that. A crisis creates a newsworthy story that ordinary advertising does not.
2. The enemy is the best recruiter. Clash Royale’s copycats were a problem for the company for years. But every clone world player is a person who wants the Clash Royale experience. Supercell turned enemies into 2.3 million new players in five days without anyone suing anyone. Sometimes the cheapest customer acquisition channel is the one you would normally send a lawyer after.
3. Honesty sells, but only if you actually take the risk. Dove promised to publish 50 reviews unfiltered. That meant they had to be sure the product was good enough that bad reviews would not destroy the brand. You can only put “I hate the smell” on a billboard if “Please don’t ever change this product” fits next to it. Dove could do it because the product was good. With a bad product the same campaign would have been suicide.
4. Give the audience an action, not a message. Three campaigns, three specific actions. Check your chocolate’s batch code. Bring your game progress over. Write an honest review. None of them asked the audience to simply watch or share. All three gave a concrete task. And when a person does something, they talk about it afterwards.
5. The best marketing does not look like marketing. KitKat’s Tracker looked like a criminal investigation tool. Clash Royale’s transfer looked like a game feature. Dove’s billboards looked like Reddit posts. None of them resembled advertising, and that is why they worked. Stories, games, and reviews do not get ignored.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the KitKat Heist campaign?
After 12 tonnes of KitKat were stolen near Turin in March 2026, KitKat published the theft, joked about it, and launched a Stolen KitKat Tracker letting anyone check their wrapper’s batch code. 2.2 million people used it and one code led police to the theft.
Why did Supercell welcome its copycats instead of suing them?
Because every clone player already wanted the Clash Royale experience. Rather than removing the clones, Supercell offered those players a progress transfer into the real game, bringing 2.3 million players across in five days.
Did Dove really publish negative reviews?
Yes. Dove promised to publish the first 50 Reddit reviews unfiltered and put them on New York billboards, including “I hate the smell, it’s like an old lady”. Sales grew over 100%.
What do these three campaigns have in common?
Each took a problem that would normally go to a lawyer or crisis team, made it the centre of the campaign, spent nothing on media, and gave the audience a specific action to perform.
Related Reading on Shopping Scientists
- Heinz Ketchup Fraud – the same move, made three years earlier.
- Skittles “Apologize the Rainbow” – nine years of anger turned into the campaign.
- Ryanair vs Elon Musk – an insult converted into bookings.
