FORTNIGHT COLLECTIVE BRINGS NOODLES & COMPANY SUPERFAN COMMENTS TO LIFE WITH AI

Online Cries For ‘Steak Stroganoff’ Turned Into Dramatic Reenactments

Fortnight Collective, the independent advertising and branding agency, has launched a breakthrough campaign for Noodles & Company’s wildly popular Steak Stroganoff, only available for a limited time, that uses AI to bring to life actual social comments from the brand’s most vocal and ‘Strog’-obsessed fans.

The campaign builds on the success of Fortnight’s previous two years of social-media-focused campaigns by demonstrating that Noodles & Company not only listens intensively to its fans but is now celebrating their passion by using AI tools to dramatize their online comments as epic, hilarious and wild adventures to be shared with the world.

“We’re living in the golden age of performative emotion,” said Andy Nathan, CEO, Fortnight Collective. “From social feeds to reality shows, feelings are a new form of currency: outrage, obsession, heartbreak. The bigger the reaction, the bigger the reach. And no one is more dramatic--in the best way—than Steak Stroganoff superfans.”

The cinematic 30-second hero video opens with luxurious tabletop footage of the dish and segues into AI-produced scenes shown side by side with actual comments from Noodles & Company fans: A woman, stranded on a tiny raft in the ocean, screams at the horizon, “Bring back Steak Stroganoff!”; a man in a space suit, lost amid the cosmos, pleads, “This is your message from the universe telling you to bring back Steak Stroganoff!”; and a desperate man, pummeled in a thunderstorm, cries out, “Bring back Steak Stroganoff neoww!”
The hero :30, along with :15 cutdowns and :15 social versions, will run on CTV, YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Meta and TikTok from January 14 – March 12. Beyond the cinematic hero spots, the campaign brings fan posts to life. Tweets, comments, and TikToks—are transformed into over-the-top, dramatizations that mirror the intensity, humor, and obsession of real social feeds, turning their words into visual spectacles. From boy band music videos to cosmic odysseys, the campaign turns the fans into the true protagonists of the story.

“When people love something this much, you don’t silence them. You give them a stage,” Nathan adds. Past efforts include rewarding every fan who asked for Steak Stroganoff on social media with a customized message from the brand, including personalized GIFs or “mean Tweets” from the CMO.

The agency was vigilant about making the use of AI transparent in the content and in the messaging that supports it. “It’s impossible to ignore the polarizing effect of AI in culture,” said Devin Reiter, President, Fortnight Collective. “We are very clear that we used AI to amplify the real-life human expressions of our client’s customers. AI allowed us to celebrate fan love in a new and wonderful way. The tone is playful and self-aware. The payoff is that AI serves the emotions of real fans in the real world.”

Fortnight Collective was named Noodles & Company’s AOR in 2019. Fortnight Collective is an independent brand accelerator agency that helps brands be better, faster. Speed is embedded in the agency’s DNA. The agency was recognized as an Adweek “100 Fastest Growing Agency” in 2020, 2021 and 2022, an Outside and AdAge “Best Places to Work” company and was named an Ad Age “Small Agency of the Year” in 2018.