Campbell Company of Canada has opened a pop-up restaurant in Toronto’s trendy Queen West neighbourhood that enables customers to sample four dishes made with its products.
Operating from Feb. 2 to 21, “The Cantina by Campbell’s” is offering complimentary lunch and dinnertime soup tasting options showcasing various entries in the company’s soup portfolio.
The company has enlisted Matt Dean Pettit, founder and chef at Toronto restaurant chain Rock Lobster, to create four dishes using various Campbell’s products, including ready-to-serve Creamy Tomato Soup, condensed Cream of Chicken Soup and Ready to Use Vegetable Broth.
Alexandra Sockett, communications manager with Campbell’s in Toronto, said the initiative was an extension of the company’s “We all soup” masterbrand platform, which was introduced last fall.
“The idea is to show consumers how to use Campbell’s within their home-cooked soup recipes,” said Sockett. “It’s showing people that Campbell’s can be used as a base ingredient, and you can customize it by adding different ingredients to make the soup your own.”
Patrons will also receive a free sample of one of the company’s new Campbell’s Soup Kits, enabling them to recreate one of Pettit’s dishes (Thai Chicken & Rice Khao Soi curry) at home.
Described by Sockett as “a head start to homemade soup,” the Canada-exclusive Soup Kits come in four flavours (Spicy Chicken Tortilla, Hearty Beef and Barley, Thai Chicken and Rice and Spiced Vegetable Medley and Orzo) and are the basis for homemade soups, which consumers complete by adding Campbell’s Broth along with fresh meat and vegetables.
Created in association with agency partners Chalkboard and The Mint Agency, the initiative also features a corporate social responsibility component, with patrons invited to place a sticker on a wall to help create a piece of pop art. Campbell Canada will donate one can of soup to the Daily Bread Food Bank – up to 15,000 cans – for each sticker placed on the wall.
Patrons are also being invited to take a picture in front of the wall to share with their social media followers using the hashtag #WeAllSoupTO.
Sockett said both the initiative and the Soup Kit products are specifically targeting millennials, whose attitudes towards packaged foods have led to significant sales drops for products like canned soup in recent years.
According to Euromonitor data, Canadian soup sales fell $127 million between 2013 and 2015, from $682 million to $555 million. The declines came in key sub-categories including shelf-stable soup ($529.3 million to $429.7 million), dehydrated soup ($85.3 million to $67.9 million) and instant soup ($34 million to $28.1 million).
This article originally appeared at CanadianGrocer.com.
