In its first national brand campaign, Canadian rice company Dainty Foods is investing in online and DOOH media in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.
With media buying and creative from agency Giant Creative, the “Everyone Deserves a Little Dainty” campaign features a variety of rice dishes and four personalities that show how the product fits into people’s lives. It’s aimed primarily at Canadian millennials and younger generations (18 to 45 years old), and appeals to a broad spectrum of lifestyles and preferences with the “The Nonna” (tradition and family), “The Improviser” (spontaneity and creativity), “The Perfectionist” (precision and detail) and “The Trendsetter” (gastronomic aesthetics and social media) personalities.
Sherry Wahid, director of marketing for Giant Creative, tells MiC the media budget reflects a considerable investment in building brand awareness and measurable results. Wahid says a substantial portion of the budget focuses on digital channels (YouTube, Meta and TikTok) to reach a wide audience with highly targeted messaging.
The brand has also made a significant investment in DOOH in metropolitan areas across Canada (Southern Ontario, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal), placing ads in transit systems, high-traffic OOH locations, as well as gyms, movie theaters and educational institutions. Additionally, Dainty’s website now has an interactive homepage with videos, a personality quiz, and Spotify playlists, for example.
“The use of Spotify playlists is indeed a novel approach for Dainty, allowing us to create a unique and engaging experience for our audience by connecting the brand with personalized music experiences tailored to the four different consumer personas within the campaign,” says Wahid.
The campaign will run through June of this year. Dainty will concentrate on increasing audience awareness during January and February, before transitioning into an adaptation and conversion phase in March and June to take advantage of data-driven optimization and campaign refining.
According to Wahid, the brand has previously focused its marketing efforts on a more localized level, utilizing both traditional and digital media in cities like Windsor and Montreal, in addition to in-person events at home shows across Canada. With a rebranding in 2017 and steady growth since then, Wahid says Dainty is now ready for greater digital media investment on a national scale.
“This campaign reflects the brand’s maturity and its ambition to establish itself as a nationally recognized and loved brand, particularly given its unique position as the only Canadian rice company milling and packing rice domestically (in Windsor, ON),” she added.
