Moisson Montréal has launched its first-ever awareness campaign, dubbed “The Insecurity Trolley,” to bring attention to food insecurity, a pressing issue affecting one in five Montrealers.

As part of the campaign, the organization created a small shopping cart as a representation of a challenging economic climate and is displaying it in a grocery store to drive shoppers to make tough decisions about what to buy. Recorded with a hidden camera, shoppers were astonished to see the cart.

According to Moisson Montréal, food insecurity refers to the lack of sufficient or regular access to healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate food. In 2023, 239,481 Montrealers received monthly food assistance, surpassing the population of Sherbrooke, Quebec’s sixth-largest city, the organization says. Meanwhile, Moisson Montréal’s demand for food aid has skyrocketed 76% over five years, with 999,455 monthly requests fulfilled in 2024, up from 567,317 in 2019.

Audrey Bernier, marketing and communication director at Moisson Montréal, tells MiC that the initiative marks the organization’s first awareness marketing campaign in its 40-year history, as well as its inaugural venture into media buying.

“Moisson Montréal has never run a public campaign on this scale before,” Bernier says. “Until now, our visibility has relied essentially on PR, word-of-mouth, organic social networks and our partners. This campaign marks a strategic shift in our approach to bringing a growing concern – food insecurity – out of the shadows.”

For its media buying debut, the team took a visual approach, relying on local billboards, TV commercials and La Presse+, an interactive app deployed in the province’s largest digital newspaper. The investment was also spread across various digital and social channels to complement and amplify the campaign’s reach, with ZA communication in charge of the buying. LG2 is also involved in the campaign handling creative and PR.

The campaign will run until July 4, with a focus on increased coverage during the first four weeks. This timing was chosen strategically, as Bernier says it coincides with a typically slow period for Moisson Montréal’s philanthropic efforts, while also offering favorable media buying conditions between the org’s programming seasons, potentially boosting support from external parties. As a registered charity, Moisson Montréal may be eligible for special considerations or benefits when advertising or seeking support, potentially increasing the campaign’s effectiveness.

The initiative’s success will be measured by tracking the number of donations made during the campaign period compared to previous years in the same period (when no marketing had been carried out), as well as monitoring social media metrics (reach, engagement, shares) and website traffic.

“We’ll be keeping a close eye on the coverage of the campaign video and the discussions it generates on the subject. We conducted an awareness survey prior to launch for a post-campaign comparison later on,” Bernier says.