2023 Winner
SilverBest in Brand Integration
Quebec Milk Producers
"Cute Kids to the Rescue"
Touché!
"Cute Kids to the Rescue"
Touché!
In Canada, milk consumption has dropped 14% since 2015. This was a big problem for Quebec Milk Producers. Competition from trendy plant-based drinks means that milk is no longer the household essential it once was. But the Holidays represented the perfect moment to reconnect Quebecers with good old fashioned cow’s milk. With vegetarianism and veganism on the rise, they needed to make milk relevant again and drive consumption.
Two strong local insights were behind the campaign. In Quebec, it’s customary for kids to leave a glass of milk under the Christmas tree for Santa Claus. Because of this tradition, milk is central to how families spend time together during the Holidays. So, every year, the Quebec Milk Producers would advertise during this festive period with ads featuring a group of cute kids, to the
delight of Quebec consumers!
2022 was a year dominated by tough economic challenges. An ageing population meant that Quebec, like the rest of Canada, was suffering from major labour shortages. There wasn’t a day that went by without news stories about the crisis – it was having a real impact on the economy and was all anyone could talk about, dominating the news agenda day in, day out in the run-up to the Holidays.
For Quebec Milk Producers, the Holidays are the perfect time to leverage the association with kids and milk. But it’s also a very cluttered time, when brands are desperate to make noise in the market.
They knew people were very concerned about the labour shortages. If they wanted to cut through with a campaign during the Holidays, they would need to hijack this conversation.
The agency would leverage their most recognizable asset – the Milk Family ‘Holiday Cute kids” – and ‘hire' them for ALL the key roles of our campaign, both in front of AND behind the camera!
So, this became the crux of their idea: The Milk ‘Holiday cute Kids’ would be the solution to Quebec’s labour shortages, becoming the savior of their Christmas campaign!
Giving them complete control of their campaign, they would become not just the actors, but would play the roles of media strategists, buyers, community managers, and designers– even becoming the programme directors of one of Quebec’s main TV channels!
Their strategy was simple: put a traditional product (milk) front and center of an important current issue to drive talkability, whilst at the same time reignite the connection between the product and Quebec consumers in a festive and fun way!
They created an omni-channel campaign based on various partnerships with local medias such as Tele-Quebec, TVA and numerous regional weeklies. They were then able to integrate the brand in the
day to day of Quebecers.
Firstly, the kids became the programme directors for “Ciné-cadeau”, a channel that airs classic Christmas movies. They selected the movies THEY wanted to watch and even extended the Holiday programmes by a week…to make sure their friends could watch great family content until they
went back to school.
And we all know how impatient kids can be – so they even shortened the commercial breaks!
They took over hosting duties on “Le Tricheur”, one of Quebec’s biggest game shows – an integration that caused a huge stir on social.
And became graphic designers of their out-of-home campaign, supervising its
installation across the province.
Across print, the kids conducted a major recruitment initiative to encourage other Quebec children to feature in the campaign. The chosen kids were then featured across various regional weeklies, increasing proximity and loyalty for the brand.
The kids then took over the Quebec Milk Producers’ Facebook Page, interacting enthusiastically with consumers, and extended their presence to LinkedIn, where they made the direct link between the campaign and the real labour shortage issue. They were funny and authentic…even if they made a few spelling mistakes along the way!
By using a profonde social issue, and adapting it to their Holiday Cute Kids, they succeeded in positively positioning milk in the daily lives of Quebecers, and thus rekindling the link with the brand.
Their partnerships with local media also worked in their favor. For the first time, thanks to a unique collaboration with Télé-Québe, Quebec Milk Producers took control of television programming as presenters of Ciné-Cadeau.
The agency shifted the focus from advertising to an editorial vision. In this way, their cute kids influenced the programming of the films and extended the programming by a week. This partnership, developed over a year enabled us to be at the heart of the project's development, and to align their advertising campaign with the channel's programming.
The 2022 Holiday campaign – featuring and made by kids – created a tangible commercial impact for the Quebec Milk Producers.
It improved milk consumption by 3 percentage points year over year – quite an accomplishment for a mature product which has been around since the dawn of time.
Even more exceptional is that the campaign drove consumption up, despite the fact that inflation has made consumers very price-sensitive, and milk comes at a higher price than soft drinks and commercial juices.
The agency succeeded at making an old-fashioned product relevant and part of today’s conversation!
Their Holiday campaign became a cultural phenomenon, reaching 220 million impressions in a province of 8 million people and making headlines across every major news outlet.
On social media, it was unanimous: millions of Quebecers expressed their love for this campaign.
Even the “Bye Bye”, the New Year’s Eve TV event watched by half of the Quebec population, did a skit that celebrated their Holiday campaign!
Two strong local insights were behind the campaign. In Quebec, it’s customary for kids to leave a glass of milk under the Christmas tree for Santa Claus. Because of this tradition, milk is central to how families spend time together during the Holidays. So, every year, the Quebec Milk Producers would advertise during this festive period with ads featuring a group of cute kids, to the
delight of Quebec consumers!
2022 was a year dominated by tough economic challenges. An ageing population meant that Quebec, like the rest of Canada, was suffering from major labour shortages. There wasn’t a day that went by without news stories about the crisis – it was having a real impact on the economy and was all anyone could talk about, dominating the news agenda day in, day out in the run-up to the Holidays.
For Quebec Milk Producers, the Holidays are the perfect time to leverage the association with kids and milk. But it’s also a very cluttered time, when brands are desperate to make noise in the market.
They knew people were very concerned about the labour shortages. If they wanted to cut through with a campaign during the Holidays, they would need to hijack this conversation.
The agency would leverage their most recognizable asset – the Milk Family ‘Holiday Cute kids” – and ‘hire' them for ALL the key roles of our campaign, both in front of AND behind the camera!
So, this became the crux of their idea: The Milk ‘Holiday cute Kids’ would be the solution to Quebec’s labour shortages, becoming the savior of their Christmas campaign!
Giving them complete control of their campaign, they would become not just the actors, but would play the roles of media strategists, buyers, community managers, and designers– even becoming the programme directors of one of Quebec’s main TV channels!
Their strategy was simple: put a traditional product (milk) front and center of an important current issue to drive talkability, whilst at the same time reignite the connection between the product and Quebec consumers in a festive and fun way!
They created an omni-channel campaign based on various partnerships with local medias such as Tele-Quebec, TVA and numerous regional weeklies. They were then able to integrate the brand in the
day to day of Quebecers.
Firstly, the kids became the programme directors for “Ciné-cadeau”, a channel that airs classic Christmas movies. They selected the movies THEY wanted to watch and even extended the Holiday programmes by a week…to make sure their friends could watch great family content until they
went back to school.
And we all know how impatient kids can be – so they even shortened the commercial breaks!
They took over hosting duties on “Le Tricheur”, one of Quebec’s biggest game shows – an integration that caused a huge stir on social.
And became graphic designers of their out-of-home campaign, supervising its
installation across the province.
Across print, the kids conducted a major recruitment initiative to encourage other Quebec children to feature in the campaign. The chosen kids were then featured across various regional weeklies, increasing proximity and loyalty for the brand.
The kids then took over the Quebec Milk Producers’ Facebook Page, interacting enthusiastically with consumers, and extended their presence to LinkedIn, where they made the direct link between the campaign and the real labour shortage issue. They were funny and authentic…even if they made a few spelling mistakes along the way!
By using a profonde social issue, and adapting it to their Holiday Cute Kids, they succeeded in positively positioning milk in the daily lives of Quebecers, and thus rekindling the link with the brand.
Their partnerships with local media also worked in their favor. For the first time, thanks to a unique collaboration with Télé-Québe, Quebec Milk Producers took control of television programming as presenters of Ciné-Cadeau.
The agency shifted the focus from advertising to an editorial vision. In this way, their cute kids influenced the programming of the films and extended the programming by a week. This partnership, developed over a year enabled us to be at the heart of the project's development, and to align their advertising campaign with the channel's programming.
The 2022 Holiday campaign – featuring and made by kids – created a tangible commercial impact for the Quebec Milk Producers.
It improved milk consumption by 3 percentage points year over year – quite an accomplishment for a mature product which has been around since the dawn of time.
Even more exceptional is that the campaign drove consumption up, despite the fact that inflation has made consumers very price-sensitive, and milk comes at a higher price than soft drinks and commercial juices.
The agency succeeded at making an old-fashioned product relevant and part of today’s conversation!
Their Holiday campaign became a cultural phenomenon, reaching 220 million impressions in a province of 8 million people and making headlines across every major news outlet.
On social media, it was unanimous: millions of Quebecers expressed their love for this campaign.
Even the “Bye Bye”, the New Year’s Eve TV event watched by half of the Quebec population, did a skit that celebrated their Holiday campaign!
Credits
Touché!Producteurs de lait du Québec
LG2
Cinélande
Post430
La Majeure
[Individual Credits - LG2]
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER: Marc Fortin, Luc Du Sault
VICE-PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE CREATIVE OFFICER: Marilou Aubin
VICE-PRESIDENT, STRATEGY: Sophie-Annick Vallée
VICE-PRESIDENT, ACCOUNT SERVICES: Marie-Christine Cayer
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTION: François Sauvé
CREATIVE DIRECTION: François Sauvé
COPYWRITING: Guillaume Bergeron, Samuel Bernard
ART DIRECTION: Mario Pesant, Philippe Leduc, Sébastien Legault
STRATEGIC PLANNING: Philippe Goudreault, Gabrielle Jacques
ACCOUNT SERVICES: Carl Milette, Andréa Fortin, Émilie Masse, Isabelle Miville, Catherine Gagnon, Maude Richard, Raphaëlle Brousseau-Letellier
PROJECT MANAGEMENT, PRODUCTION: Emmanuelle Gauthier-Laquerre, Mélissa Brisson
AGENCY PRODUCTION: Lina Piché
EDITING: Mathieu Lebel, Ludauvick Geoffroy, Dominic Rioual
GRAPHIC PRODUCTION: Frederic St-Denis, Manon Rémillard, Cédric Patenaude
MAC ARTISTS: Frederic St-Denis, Manon Rémillard, Cédric Patenaude