Montreal’s transit system is looking a little cheesy these days.
As part of its “Les fromages d’ici (Our cheeses from here)” campaign promoting the wide variety of Québec-made cheeses, the Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec has partnered with Métromédia Plus to install a series of oversized billboards in six of Montreal’s busiest Metro stations.
The boards feature the names of 300 artisanal cheeses produced in the province. They appear on the heels of a French-language TV and English-language radio campaign that broke March 26 and ran province-wide until today. (The four TV spots featured a know-it-all who is unaware that Quebec produces 300 varieties of cheese.)
Two of the boards in the Montreal MĂ©tro feature an interactive component inviting passengers to tweet the name of a Quebec cheese they know and have their submission appear on the screen. Nearly 800 people had responded to the Twitter invite at press time, while an additional 1,000 people had watched a making-of video about the campaign on YouTube.
Nicole Dubé, director of marketing for Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec in Québec City, said that the organization began promoting Quebec cheese in 2005. While the vast majority of Quebec cheese – about 80% – is produced by major companies like Kraft and Saputo, Dubé said that the remaining 20% is critical to the public perception of cheese.
“We know that the image of cheese is more focused on the artisanal,” said Dubé. “The 20% is responsible for the reputation of all cheese in Quebec.”
The organization has also wrapped buses in Québec City as part of the campaign. Cossette developed the campaign creative. Media was handled by Cossette Media.
