2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Cultural / Context information for the jury

After more than 30 years, Hardee's needed a differentiating brand refresh in the market. The aim was to 1) consolidate the regional love of the Hardee's brand amongst their existing loyal audience 2) Attract a new GEN-Z audience. The project was to roll-out a full architecture - develop a tone of voice and design aesthetic, which would drive down into multiple touch points across the full Hardee's ecosystem. This included: logo, in-store branding, packaging, above-the-line and digital marketing. Hardee's have a fraction of the budget of their biggest competitors McDonalds, KFC, PIzza Hut, and Burger King. And in a truly cluttered burger / fast-food landscape in the region, to have a chance of standing out, we had to double-down on what was true to Hardee's as a brand – and be unapologetic about it.

Tell the jury about the art direction.

With society increasingly dictating how we should behave, we're all feeling the pressure. So we decided to fly in the face of correctness and GO ALL IN on what makes Hardee's great - CELEBRATING PURE INDULGENCE. It's what eating burgers is all about. It's what our target audience wants. And everything in life tastes better this way. We developed a distinctive new tone-of-voice and design aesthetic to turn every touchpoint into a brand-building opportunity, making sure our liberating new spirit gave Hardee's a clearly recognizable voice in the market. So we built a foundation of liberating messaging and fierce in-your-face typography. Then we designed visuals bringing to life the Hardee's attitude - depicting inopportune moments to eat a burger, and a carefree attitude to mess, turning each moment of consumption into a rebellious statement in-of-itself -- reminding us that if you want it, don't give a damn, and have it.