It might mark the first use of the words “egg man” in a song since The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus.”
The Egg Farmers of Canada has launched a new TV and online campaign that showcases the country’s approximately 1,100 egg farmers and their product. Developed by Rethink, the bilingual “Pride in Every Egg” (“Nos oeufs, notre fierté”) campaign kicked off its second three-week flight on July 2. OMD Canada handled the media buy.
“We know that Canadians are now one or two generations removed from farming, so this campaign [was developed] to put a face to egg farmers,” said Sarah Caron, Ottawa-based marketing officer for Egg Farmers of Canada.
The “Pride in Every Egg” positioning was chosen from options including the “Dedicated to Quality” message that currently accompanies the Egg Farmers of Canada’s corporate logo, business cards, etc.
“For this particular campaign, we really wanted to emphasize the pride message,” said Caron. “It’s a huge responsibility for egg farmers that they’re bringing Canadians this safe food product every day.”
The campaign marks something of a departure from the organization’s recent marketing approach, which has focused on the energy boost that eggs provide. That approach has been in place since roughly 2005, said Caron, and is also expected to form the basis of a new campaign debuting this fall.
The centrepiece of the “Pride in Every Egg” campaign is a 30-second TV spot that chronicles a day in the life of four egg farmer families, backed by a folksy song (sample lyric: “work hard/through and through/pass my freshest/eggs onto you/’cause I’m an egg man/proudest in the land”). There is no mention of the words “koo koo ka joo.”
The spot drives to Eggs.ca and its French-language counterpart, LesOuefs.ca, and also swaps out the standard Get Cracking brand mark for the Egg Farmers of Canada name, which replaced the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency name about two years ago.
Caron said testing indicates the spot is one of the highest-scoring ads in the organization’s history, performing well with consumers on metrics including appeal and relevance. The organization is currently in planning for 2013, said Caron, and there is already a likelihood the spot will re-appear.
The most recent Nielsen Retail Sales data shows that egg sales have increased 2.5% since 2009. Household penetration of eggs in Canada is approximately 98%, with an average of 20 million dozen eggs sold at retail each month.
