Metro Ontario launches Taste Summer campaign

Metro Ontario is celebrating local produce, growers and the communities in which the grocer operates in its new summer campaign.

Its new Taste Summer campaign included grocery sponsorship of last weekend’s inaugural Taste of Toronto Festival, which brought together chefs from across the city. Metro’s presence included the Metro Master Class in which chefs helped visitors prepare, cook and sample “restaurant quality” dishes using fresh Ontario produce.

“The grocery business is a local business,” says Nancy Modrcin, senior director of marketing for Metro Ontario. “There's no better way to inspire people to try new things than to offer them opportunities to interact with our food directly.”

During the festival, Metro also established the Metro Market & Lounge, where festival-goers could sample and buy fresh, local products available in its stores. Visitors could relax in the lounge and try fresh pressed local juice, herb and fruit-infused water and Ontario produce.

Metro is also holding what it dubs “in-store mini festivals” in its Ontario stores until the end of August to showcase and provide samplings of the province’s produce as soon as it comes into season.

“These three experiential elements of the campaign came together to complete a full food experience, from shopping to cooking to tasting,” Modrcin adds.



The campaign is also helping Metro know its customers better, Modrcin says. “If you want to know what your customers want, you need to talk to them. If you want to know what they think of your products, you need to have that conversation with the product at hand. It creates an opportunity to gather feedback that you can then use to improve your brand and overall business. We take that feedback very seriously.”

As part of the campaign, Metro has partnered with Laura Keogh and Ceri Marsh, authors of How to Feed a Family: The Sweet Potato Chronicles, who are acting as brand ambassadors and providing recipes and tips that use Ontario produce in print and broadcast media.

Metro is running print ads and advertorials in Canadian Living magazine through the fall harvest season. Each double page spread features exclusive recipes designed by various local chefs, growers or media personalities, as well as editorial content that showcases local Ontario products.