Quebec milk producers knit one, purl one, with Knitting Mania

New mobile app game challenges users to knit like pros in a quest to create a superhero costume for a milk-drinking septuagenarian.

By Nick Krewen
December 3, 2009

In Quebec, milk has got game.

Montreal-based agencies Nolin BBDO and Touché!PHD as well as interactive developer Five have teamed up to create Knitting Mania – or Tricot Mania, as it’s known in La Belle Province – as part of the ‘Lait: Source Naturelle de Réconfort’ campaign for Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec.

And they’re creating a bit of history in the process: Knitting Mania is the first free iPhone and iPod Touch game to be offered by a Québec advertiser.

‘It’s the first time a game application for a brand has been done in Québec, so we’re testing the water for the first time to see if it’s something that sticks and something that correlates to overall messaging for us and our clients,’ Mathieu Duffar, vice president, Nolin BBDO, told MiC.

The game is part of a promotional website called Reconfortant.com (‘comforting’), which opens with the shot of an older lady drinking milk while knitting. As the shot widens, you see a knitted cape on a dressmaking dummy. The woman pauses to try on the fingerless gloves she is knitting, and then strikes a superhero pose. The game continues the theme by challenging viewers to ‘knit’ – Guitar Hero-style – a mysterious object that reveals itself to be a purple superhero mask. The creative theme, said Duffar, is that while milk is comforting (like knitting) it also has the ability to power a secret superhero lifestyle.

Duffar, whose agency has overseen campaigns with the Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec for over 15 years, says the contest-driven game – available in both French and English-language versions – was launched last month and will last through Dec. 31, 2009.

Targeting 18- to 30-year-olds, the game is part of a 360 advertising campaign including TV, radio, OOH, Facebook and Reconfortant.com. The app itself is being promoted online through banners, traditional and interactive advertising, and in-app advertising.

‘The idea is that milk is comforting for any kind of situation,’ Duffar said of the campaign. ‘We launched Knitting Mania on our website, and then ported it into Facebook. And now we have the same game available for iPhone clients. The mandate for the Québec milk board is to engage Quebecers to stay connected with the Federation, as the volume of milk consumption has grown over the years.’