Angry Butterfly embraces the unconventional

Angry Butterfly, a creative agency based in Toronto, is making a habit of finding unorthodox solutions to brands’ thorny problems. The independent shop helped cannabis retailer Stok’d skirt Canadian advertising restrictions by creating a series of spots centered around the chain’s retail neighbors, including an electrical shop and bookstore. See all of the 2024 Small Agency award winners here In one ad, a nail salon proprietor describes her shop with terms such as “anything but half-baked,” “blazing” and “chill.” At the end, while showing an exterior shot of the store, the camera subtly pans over to reveal Stok’d, the real star of the campaign. It was certainly a risk, but “much to our surprise and relief, not one ad was rejected when trafficked,” Erin Kawalecki, chief creative officer at Angry Butterfly, told Ad Age in February. The campaign resulted in 29% and 26% increases in online and in-store customers, respectively, as well as a 12% spike in Stok’d revenue, according to the agency. There was also “Bill it to Bezos,” the Robin Hood-esque campaign Angry Butterfly created for a Toronto community center, the Jane/Finch Centre (JFC), by exploiting a loophole in Twitch, the Amazon-owned video game streaming platform. Twitch has a policy through which Amazon Prime members get $3.50 each month to subscribe to a streamer, but if the money isn’t used, it goes right back to the e-commerce giant. So Angry Butterfly turned JFC into a verified Twitch streamer, allowing people to subscribe and donate funds entirely supplied by Amazon. See all of the 2024 Small Agency award winners here The community center hit its fundraising target of $20,000 in one week, with more than 45% of donations coming through Twitch. Clients are keen to take advantage of Angry Butterfly’s unconventional approach. Over the past year, the shop was named agency of record for Porsche Canada and also picked up work for Imax Global, Gibson’s Finest Whisky, Sticker You and the Toronto Blue Jays—a flurry of wins that fueled a roughly 44.9% rise in revenue to $5.2 million in 2023.

Angry Butterfly embraces the unconventional

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