Empire is feeding the dream of Olympic glory
Empire Company Ltd., the parent company of Sobeys, IGA, and Safeway has brought back its “Feed the Dream” marketing campaign for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which get underway in Beijing next month.
The theme of the campaign is nourishing Canada’s Olympic hopefuls through both food and the support of family and coaches. The campaign will run during both the Olympics and Paralympics with advertising on TV, online, and social channels, as well as out of home, in-store and presence in the CBC’s Road to the Olympic Games show.
"We are thrilled that our Feed The Dream platform brought out the pride and passion of Canadians and athletes last summer, and we are excited to continue fueling that momentum into the Winter Games," said Sandra Sanderson, SVP, marketing, Empire in a release. "The heartwarming stories about how families, friends, coaches and communities have rallied around Canadian athletes and Para athletes are emotional, inspirational and significant to their individual journeys.”
The campaign is built around three key cornerstones of food, sports and family, which is particularly complementary to Sobeys brand promise of being “Canada’s Family Grocery Store.”
Advertising for this new campaign once again focuses on the critical role that the support of family and coaches play in helping athletes make it to the Olympics. (While all Empire banners will have some version of Feed The Dream, the TV ad will run only with the Sobeys branding.)
The featured ad running on TV includes some of the athletes sponsored by Empire (full list below), and shows scenes of how families support athletes—those who are just starting out and those who hope to make it to the podium in Beijing. There’s also a handful of shorter videos focused on individual athletes and asks “What does it take to Feed the Dream,” with different answers like hard work, dedication and family.
Last summer, Empire asked all Canadians to share words of encouragement that were stitched into a special tablecloth. For the Winter Games, Empire is once again inviting people to visit FeedTheDream.ca, but this time Canadians can complete the sentence “It takes _____ to Feed the Dream” for a chance to win a Family Viewing Kit, which includes food, grocery cards and memorabilia.
There’s also a handful of shorter video ads focused on individual athletes and asks “What does it take to Feed the Dream,” with “It takes _____ to Feed the Dream” filled in by different answers like hard work, dedication and family.
Empire also announced the Team Canada athletes it is sponsoring directly:
- Canada's Women's Hockey Team
- Blayre Turnbull, Women's Hockey (Stellarton, Nova Scotia)
- Brady Leman, Ski Cross (Calgary, Alberta)
- Cassie Sharpe, Freestyle Skiing – Halfpipe (Vancouver, British Columbia)
- Isabelle Weidemann, Long Track Speed Skating – 3000m (Ottawa, Ontario)
- Marie-Philip Poulin, Women's Hockey (Quebec City, Quebec)
- Mark Arendz, Para Nordic Skiing (Hartsville, Prince Edward Island)
- Max Parrot, Snowboard (Bromont, Quebec)
- Mollie Jepsen, Para Alpine Skiing (Vancouver, British Columbia)
- Sarah Nurse, Women's Hockey (Hamilton, Ontario)
Empire will provide grocery gift cards to all Olympic and Paralympic athletes as a form of direct support.
