A fry house for McCain SureCrisp, the official fry of the Chicago Cubs, built around one big red button. Get a good fry, hit it, and the whole plaza is yours for a few seconds.
SureCrisp is McCain's fry made to stay crispy on the way to the table. It became the official fry of the Cubs, with Fridays at Gallagher Way, the plaza next to Wrigley Field.
Almost nobody there had heard of it. In the surveys, 92% didn't know SureCrisp. Whatever we built had to stop people who came for baseball, not fries.
SureCrisp is a fry made to stay crispy on the way to you, so the delivery became the demo. Fries cooked on a truck down the block, boxed up, and carried across the lawn by brand ambassadors dressed as delivery drivers. They ring the doorbell of a little yellow house, a teammate answers, and the fries come out crispy after the whole trip.
And at the center of it all, one very big button. Get a good fry and the button is yours. Hit it, and the room is yours too, for a few seconds.
Charles creative directed the whole program and led the design team: the house, the fry trees, the games and the button. Curly Fry Fling was a ring toss. Shoestring Stack was a tower game with crispy pieces and soggy ones.
The fry burst, oversized fries exploding out of the center, was his own design, so people came over from across the street before they knew why.
Built hand in hand with our fabrication partners: carved foam, steel fry trees and a whole yellow house, stood up in the shop before it ever left.
The button runs on a battery in its pedestal and talks to the sound system over Bluetooth. More parts, more ways to fail, and it could go anywhere.
Thirteen Friday home games at Gallagher Way, then thirteen street festivals around Chicago. The lawn filled up around the fry house and stayed full.
Every few minutes the music cut out, the lights flashed, a horn blew, and the whole plaza heard "SO CRISPY!" (that's Charles).
Inside the ballpark, the videoboard called it: Free Fry Fridays. In the 4th inning, crispy fries went out to fans in their seats. 1,590 of them over the season, delivered, still crispy.
26 events over 44 days. 44,005 samples handed out and 35,710 people through the fry house. 97% agreed the fries stayed crispy, and 93% said they'd ask for them by name.
The full quote: "The fry button was my favorite part. I couldn't help but press it twice!"
We worked on this project before founding TinyRobot.
