Been A Slice

Second Harvest: Been a Slice

Client Category
Food & Beverage · Nonprofit & Sustainability · Circular Economy

Services Provided
Brand Strategy · Brand Naming · Brand Visual Identification · Packaging Design · Campaign Creative · Digital Content · Social Media · Influencer Programs · Product Launch Strategy · Media Strategy

Business Challenge

Second Harvest faced a rare branding paradox:
How do you turn food waste — especially surplus bread — into a premium product people actively crave?

The mission was powerful.
But purpose alone doesn’t sell beer.

In a crowded craft beer landscape, purpose-driven products often drown in preachy messaging. To succeed, “Been a Slice” couldn’t behave like charity.
It had to behave like a top-tier beer brand.

The challenge wasn’t just awareness — it was desirability.

Strategic Insight

Millennials and Gen Z wanted to support impact-driven brands — but without sacrificing flavour, quality, or experience. They didn’t want guilt trips. They wanted effortless impact.

Our key behavioural insight:

Purpose becomes powerful when it’s pleasurable.

Consumers didn’t want another environmental lecture.
They wanted a great beer that also made a difference.

This aligned perfectly with our strategic lens:
Drive Emotion, Relevance, and Difference without preaching.

Creative Solution

We built a circular economy revolution disguised as a premium beer.

“Been a Slice.”
A name that captured the humour, humanity, and alchemy behind transforming leftover bread into liquid gold.

The creative approach celebrated the upcycling process as magic, not charity.

Visual Story Revolution

• Packaging showcased the bread-to-beer transformation
• Treated upcycling as creativity and craftsmanship

Launch Spectacle

• Brewery partner events that fused tastings with environmental storytelling
• Turned launch day into both a party and a purpose moment

Retail Activation

• LCBO and Sobeys displays
• Educated while driving purchase
• Connected indulgence with impact

Authentic Influence

• Social content documenting the real bread-to-beer journey
• Honest storytelling over polished moralizing

Documentary Depth

• A mini-film showcasing the full circular process
• Built emotional commitment and trust

“Been a Slice” became a symbol of what circular economy products should feel like—joyful, premium, and proudly waste-free.

Results

🍺 First production run (10,000 cans) sold out quickly
💰 Nearly $500,000 raised for Second Harvest programs
📈 280M+ total media impressions across all cycles
🏆 Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award
📰 Earned media coverage in Forbes, CBC, and top food publications
🔥 Blueprint for premium upcycled consumer goods

Category Takeaway

“Been a Slice” didn’t just launch a beer — it launched a movement.

It showed that when you make sustainability irresistible—rather than moralistic—you turn consumers into believers and purchases into impact.

The strategic truth for marketing leaders:

The biggest impact brands aren’t the ones that preach.
They’re the ones that delight.

When you transform waste into wonder, purpose becomes premium.

That’s how Second Harvest became the King of Purpose-Driven Indulgence.