Canadian supermarket brand IGA, a chain of independent grocers supplied by Sobeys (owned by Canadian grocery giant Empire) which franchises the name teamed up with agency Sid Lee to celebrates IGA’s sponsorship of Team Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
The activation is spearheaded by a hero film called ‘The Athlete’: an animated spot running across television, the web and social media between 24 January and 20 February and supported by a practical ‘Recipes for Champions’ strand.
The lead 60-second spot rolled out as the team departed for Winter Olympic host nation China and features animated character Lorraine trying to stay calm by cooking for her son Zack as she ‘proudly feeds the dream’.
“As the official grocer of Team Canada, we are extremely proud to support, feed and help our athletes grow,” says Carl Pichette, vice-president of marketing for Quebec at Sobeys. “With this approach, we wanted to transcend the theme of surpassing oneself to show how much sharing a family passion, for both sports and food, can define an athlete’s path in the pursuit of their Olympic and Paralympic dreams.”
“The challenge we gave ourselves a year ago was an ambitious one: create a traditional IGA holiday story that sets the stage for Team Canada sponsorship, while keeping the effect of the surprise a secret,” explained Sid Lee Creative Director Julie Desrochers. “Now that the second film has been released, we’re really looking forward to the public’s reaction.”
The film is supported by a ‘Recipes for Champions’ campaign strand which is a light-hearted, yet practical way of exploring connections between family, food and elite sport.
Hubbed around a bespoke webpage containing individual athlete tailored recipes (created from products available at IGA) and promoted through a digital and social video series featuring Team Canada‘s athletes from Quebec Mikaël Kingsbury (freestyle skier), Mélodie Daoust (ice hockey player), Max Parrot (snowboarder), Laurent Dubreuil (speed skater) et Frédérique Turgeon (Para alpine skier).
Led by chef Stefano Faita, these five recipe capsules present Team Canada athletes with an enhanced, healthy version of one of their favourite childhood recipe – pitched in a competition against their own parents.
The activation was briefed in by and created for a group of Sobeys marketers which included Carl Pichette, Caroline Duhamel, Geneviève Gouin-Demers, Johanne Lescadre, Sandra Huynh, Julie Gendron, Frédérique Cyr-Labrie, David Auger-Simard, Karine Lebel, Pascaline Varin, Vincent Globensky and Catherine Gadbois.
The campaign was created via agency Sid Lee where the team included Creatives Alex Bernier, David Lambert, Julie Desrochers and Olivier Valiquette, Mathieu Bouillon, Miriam Rondeau, Julie Desrochers, Krissi Campbell, Andréane Voyer, Sarah Lemire, Paul Gaspari, and Pascal Gagnon, plus Alex Lachapelle, Andréane Voyer, Miriam Rondeau, Mathieu Bouillon, Krissi Campbell and Sarah Lemire.
The production group included Joannie Tellier, Carolyne Goyette, Magali Loiselle (Film), Rose Gauthier-Robitaille, Chanel Galipeau, Marie-Ly Cormier, Marie-Christine Toupin, with strategy handled by Pauline Rosen, Marilyse Dionne and Gonzague Mulot. The account team was Geneviève Boulanger, Ariane Poitras, Catherine Savoie, Judith Dupuis and Khaled Antably.
Other parties and companies working on the film included Directors Bertrand Bey and Marie-Julie Dallaire, Producers Alexandre Pagot, Jérémy Dumetre and Mathieu Taggart. 3D production was handled by Mathematic with CG Supervisor Martin Trepeau.
Audio and music was run through Circonflex with musicians Mike Daigle, Olivier Girard and Paul-Étienne Côté, Sound Designer Pierre-Hugues Rondeau and Mixer Dominic Cabana.
The ‘Recipes For Champions’ work was helmed by Director David Tomassini with editing and motion design also from Sid Lee, colour and online by Chop Chop Films and Audio by BLVD.
Media was handled by a team at Carat which included Maryse Archambault, Annie Forget, Simon Garneau, Nathalie Bilodeau and Jessica St-Gelais Lapointe.
Comment
This ‘The Athlete’ animated Olympic activation follows on from Sid Lee’s Christmas campaign for IGA called ‘The Trophy’ and runs in parallel with parent company Empire’s ‘Feed The Dream’ activation which is running across Sobey’s, Safeway and IGA.
Empire and its sub-brands provide grocery cards to all qualified 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic athletes to ensure the athletes can prepare all of their favourite recipes. These cards can be redeemed for nutritious food at Empire banner stores – including IGA.
It also runs in parallel with Team Canada’s own ‘Glory From Anywhere’ Winter Olympic campaign for Beijing 2022.
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