Who: Metro Ontario, with The Hive for creative and strategy, Havas for media, and Agnostic for PR.
What: “Dish Flip,” a holiday campaign asking grocery shoppers to experiment with some new recipes provided by other Metro shoppers.
When & Where: It’s running until Jan. 1, using precision-targeted paid social, supported by radio, in-store and some influencer activations.
Why: Metro and The Hive wanted to connect with grocery shoppers as they were starting to think about holiday meal planning to encourage them to try something different and multicultural for at least one dish this year.
“We just loved the thought of waking people up from their culinary slumber and connecting them to different dishes from across their local community,” said The Hive’s associate creative director, Mitch Duesling, in a release. “Dish Flip is all about turning over the holiday same-olds.”
How: Ads present photos of traditional Christmas fare like turkey and mashed potatoes, along with a suggestion to “Flip your holiday dish” using one of the options provided by Metro shoppers from across Ontario and a prompt to click for the recipe. There are 15 different paid social ads, although the website includes 50 different recipes in total, with photos and short explanations of why the recipe is important to them.
Anthonia from Kitchener, for example, shares her recipe for Seafood Fried Jollof Rice. “My mom taught me this recipe. She was taught by her mother, and it was passed down for generations long before their time,” she writes. “It actually dates back to the 14th century, and is one of the most popular dishes in West Africa.”
“It’s all about inspiring holiday grocery shoppers with community-sourced ideas reflected by the experiences and traditions of our customers,” said Metro Ontario marketing director Mathieu Robitaille. “By spotlighting not only the diversity of dishes, but the people behind them that make our communities unique, we’re excited to celebrate what makes the holidays truly special across our province.”
Targeting: The ads are targeted based on searches for traditional holiday foods. “We wanted to make sure we shared this idea in the exact moments when people would be looking for holiday recipe inspiration, and not just planting a seed that they may come back to later on,” said The Hive’s associate creative director, Naeem Walji. “That’s why targeting commonly searched recipes was so important.”
And we quote: “We loved the idea of having people from our communities share ideas instead of picking and choosing what we think customers should consider this holiday season,” says Boaz Sudai, senior brand manager for Metro Ontario.
