Grip Limited has accepted a Dare. The Toronto agency has been awarded the creative and digital assignment for Kitchener-based Dare Foods following a formal review.
Grip was one of two agencies shortlisted for the consumer packaged goods account, which had been held by CP+B and its predecessor, Zig, for the past 10 years.
Dare’s senior director of marketing, Kelly McInenly, said that a wholly Canadian agency like Grip was a natural partner to help the company further its marketing objectives.
“There certainly was a lot of appeal in a fellow Canadian company like Grip,” she said. “We really liked that they are fully integrated and media agnostic, [as well as] their Canadian balance sheet and all of their thinking being centered here.”
Grip president and partner Harvey Carroll said that Dare aligns with the agency’s quest to work with clients that have a “culture and values fit” with the agency and share its commitment to building brands.
The pitch originated as project work for Dare’s Breton cracker brand, but was subsequently expanded to include the company’s entire brand portfolio – which also includes Bear Paws cookies and the Real Fruit line of products.
Grip will also oversee U.S. work for Dare. Quebec-based agency Brad, which has partnered with Grip on other assignments, including Honda, InBev and Expedia, will handle French-language creative.
Grip is currently conducting what Carroll described as “upfront strategy and planning work” for Dare, reviewing the company’s brand portfolio and determining an appropriate positioning for each.
“We’re trying to work with them collaboratively to come up with some more robust positioning and really make sure we’re leveraging the right aspects of the brand,” said Carroll. “They have these wonderful brands with this incredible history… so I think it’s going to be more around mining the insights and the strengths around each of them.”
McInenly said the exercise has been “eye-opening” in terms of uncovering some of the core values of its key brands, “even trademarks that we thought we had figured out.”
None of those brand insights will be immediately reflected in Dare’s consumer marketing, however, as McInenly said the company already has creative in the pipe for the coming year. Grip’s first ground-up work for the company isn’t expected until April 2013.
Dare is marking its 120th anniversary this year and is looking to adopt a more integrated approach to marketing, said McInenly.
While the company has done both television and print advertising in the past, it has relied heavily on in-store communications to promote its brands, she said. “We’d certainly like to be more consumer-facing outside the store, with whatever form that might take,” she said.
Grip will also be charged with helping Dare develop its master brand, which McInenly said hasn’t been put “front and centre” for consumers. “We’re looking at how we can tell our story, because we think we have a compelling one that’s uniquely Canadian,” she said.
Carroll said while it won’t necessarily be front and centre in its marketing, Dare’s heritage and history is a “great asset” in developing marketing that resonates with consumers. “It’s nice to have those reasons to believe,” he said.
