Soup as an art form? To hardcore foodies it is. So Knorr reinforced its illustration-driven print campaign with a recent street-level activation.

‘Paint by Palate’ saw the brand sponsor three art students and score free press and increased web traffic along the way.

The Toronto-based Unilever brand parked trucks with ‘glass studios’ in high-traffic pedestrian areas in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, where three art students spent three days last month painting on large canvasses, allowing passersby to observe their progress. The trucks prominently display the web address www.knorrmasterpiece.ca, where users can create their own

‘soup-inspired’ works of art using point-and-click tools. Each time a unique user makes a creation, Knorr will donate $10 to one of the student’s art schools, up to $10,000 per school.

‘Art is important to our core consumer,’ explains Angie Law, Knorr’s brand building manager, adding that the brand’s psychographic target is ‘adventurers’ – people for whom food is very important, and who love experimenting with recipes.

‘The parallels really are there between art and food…there’s the same dedication to craftsmanship.’

Law says one of the promo’s main goals is to drive web traffic. ‘A lot of people don’t realize how many different products Knorr makes,’ she says. ‘The website is truly the place where we can house all of our products.’

The launch was covered by local Global, CTV and CBC television newscasts in the three cities. Within three days, the website had attracted almost 3,000 unique visits, raising $28,280.