This category recognizes live events that involve creators and brand integrations. 

IGA – FRAIS DU TOIT (WINNER)

CLIENT: SOBEYS – IGA

AGENCY: CLARK INFLUENCE

ABOUT THE ENTRY

In 2017, IGA opened the largest organic vegetable garden on a supermarket roof in Canada and launched the brand “Frais du Toit”: fruits and vegetables that are certified organic by Ecocert Canada, and directly sold in the supermarket below the roof garden. To celebrate its initiative, IGA invited personalities (Radio hosts, TV personalities, Foodies, etc.) on its green roof garden to share a unique experience: a dinner at sunset with fresh ingredients picked on the roof made by Chef Maurín with DJ Abeille Gélinas creating a vibrant atmosphere.

https://www.facebook.com/vivelabouffe/videos/2378352539079110/?v=2378352539079110

IGA, Clark Influence, Urbania and Agence Cartier created a special event to experience the pleasure of cooking and eating fruits and vegetables harvested around you. Frais Du Toit is an ambitious project brought to life by IGA, it is a refreshing story of passion and tradition that needs to be heard and to resonate. By inviting influencers on the green roof garden and by producing content shared on social media, the Frais Du Toit initiative has been more than 600 000 times.

Strongbow Cider O’Clock

CLIENT: MOLSON COORS – STRONGBOW

AGENCY: CITIZEN RELATIONS 

ABOUT THE ENTRY

Although wine rituals are well-known, cider rituals aren’t. Strongbow, looking to target wine drinkers, wanted to change that. Inspired by the trending #wineoclock hashtag, an immersive two-day escape was created for media and influencers to launch the new Rose cider, drive trial and showcase that the entire cider repertoire can be enjoyed during typical “go-to” wine occasions.

Partnering with the June Motel in PEC, Citizen Relations turned #wineoclock into #cideroclock. From an apple orchard tour to a cider masterclass and yoga session, the experience immersed guests into the Strongbow lifestyle and educated on cider best practices.

As opposed to focusing on one product launch, the campaign aimed to change the way an entire category, and not just the Strongbow brand is perceived. The experience allowed them to educate the right people and drive trial in an innovative fashion, showcasing how cider should be enjoyed and as well as the options for a variety of pallets, helping to overcome the stigma that ‘cider is too sweet’. This was displayed through the content created by influencers, as well as the earned media stories it inspired, incorporating Strongbow into larger narratives as opposed to simple product mentions.

The event concept was deemed so successful that the earned media campaign was extended into a sampling campaign. The Strongbow in-house sampling team extended the partnership with The June for the remainder of the summer to continue the momentum kicked off by the experiential experience, hosting #cideroclock sampling sessions for consumers staying at The June Motel.

The earned campaign was further extended through paid media. A partnership with blogTO was created, where they sent content creators to the event to create a video. The video was then shared on blogTo’s channel as a contest, where one lucky winner would be offered a gift card to The June, courtesy of Strongbow.

The experience will be replicated by the Strongbow sales team. As part of a contest with an on-premise account, one winner will receive the same experience media and influencers received in PEC.

Heartmelt Motel

CLIENT: IVANHOE CAMBRIDGE

AGENCY: MADE IN

ABOUT THE ENTRY

Quebec-based commercial real-estate owner Ivanhoé Cambridge created the Heartmelt Motel travelling installation as a fun pop-up taking place in 7 shopping malls across Canada.

Inspired by retro California motels, the pop-up was a bright and playful environment that provided individual rooms with Instagram-worthy installations and signature walls for a fun experience – perfect as a photography playground.
From April to June 2019, the digital campaign introduced the pop-up across Canada. Over 30 influencers provided coverage for VIP launch events, promoted the hashtag contest and published engaging content to drive attendance and visibility with attractive visuals that showcased the stylish Instagram opportunities.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Byf6CMNBpR1/

This Canada-wide campaign was a great success not only in terms of analytical results but also regarding the quality of the content created. The challenge of managing 33 influencers across 7 locations within a very tight timeframe was largely met.

The collaboration mechanism allowed influencers to announce their presence at the VIP event while offering their community the opportunity to join them on this unique evening. The originality of this idea was successful and made it possible to engage influencers’ subscribers through Instagram tools (yes/no survey).

In a second phase, the recruited influencers shared their experience during the VIP event in stories and included the gifs prepared for the occasion, thus highlighting the different atmospheres of the pop-up rooms. The presence of the contest winners, who also shared their experience at the event, broadened the reach of the campaign beyond the influencers’ online social communities.

To conclude the campaign, the influencers shared visually appealing original photos of their visit to the Heartmelt Motel and showed how fun, colourful and memorable the experience was.

At the end of the campaign, there were more than 5.4K posts tagged with the hashtag #HeartmeltMotel, and more than 400 with the Francophone version of the hashtag, #MotelPastel.