PepsiCo Foods’ breakfast cereal brand Quaker has partnered with Olympic gold medalist Alex Bilodeau on a new corporate social responsibility initiative.
Kicking off at Toronto’s Union Station yesterday, the “Unlock Amazing” campaign will benefit Food Banks Canada while promoting Quaker breakfast cereals and the company’s new Hearty Medleys product line.
Bilodeau, who at the 2010 Vancouver Games became the first Canadian to win Olympic gold on native soil, is the face of the campaign. The 23-year-old freestyle skiing champion is starring in a series of online videos promoting the “Unlock Amazing” event, and is also featured in online banners and the campaign’s Facebook component.
“The Quaker brand is excited to be working with Alex,” said Kathryn Matheson, vice-president of marketing for Quaker Foods and PepsiCo Foods Innovation at PepsiCo Foods Canada, during Monday’s kick-off event in Toronto. “He is an amazing example for us all.
“The Quaker brand and Alex have a shared belief in starting the day right, and he knows a nutritious breakfast is important to unlocking his winning spirit.”
The English and French-language campaign–which will run through March–features a call-to-action to Canadians to visit Facebook.com/QuakerCanada and Facebook.com/QuakerQuebec and create their own customized bowl of virtual oatmeal. If 25,000 consumers create a bowl, Quaker will double its planned 2011 donation of one million bowls of Quaker oatmeal to Food Banks Canada to two million bowls.
According to a 2010 report by Food Banks Canada called HungerCount 2010: A comprehensive report on hunger and food bank use in Canada, food bank use in Canada has risen by 28% over the past two years. In March 2010, more than 860,000 people–more than 38% of them children and youth–relied on food bank assistance to have enough to eat.
A 60-second brand spot that asks Canadians “Does Your Breakfast Make You Amazing?” began a nearly four-month run during morning programming yesterday. Quaker is also leveraging its ongoing association with the morning shows BT in English Canada and Salut Bonjour in French Canada to promote the campaign.
The campaign is also being supported by a PR component built around an Ipsos Reid survey revealing that only 55% of Canadians eat breakfast every day.
The “Unlock Amazing” initiative is a collaborative effort between Quaker’s creative agency Juniper Park, media agency OMD Canada, PR agency PraxisPR and the sports marketing agency SDI Marketing.
