The Egg Farmers of Canada are back at it. The association has released another platform that further drives ongoing efforts to get Canadians to eat eggs more often.

Spots in a new “Eggs Anytime” marketing platform, created by Cossette, features people who are labelled as weird for incorporating eggs during lunch or dinner. They promptly fire back by pointing out something that should actually be considered weird, such as their choices in fashion or a significant other.

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While the platform is new, the spots still feature the “Get Cracking” brand mark that the Egg Farmers and its regional associations have used for more than a decade and continues to be an education and recipe platform for the organization.

Judi Bundrock, chief marketing and communications officer of Egg Farmers of Canada, says the new platform is a natural “ramping up” of its marketing efforts from its 2017 “Weekday Eggs” campaign, adding that it’s also a more targeted approach that’s more mindset-driven, compared to previous marketing that was more focused on the “natural goodness of eggs.”

It’s previous “Weekday Eggs” campaign comically portrayed regular eggs as a “new” variety that could be enjoyed during the work and school week. The effort was a similar attempt to change consumer perceptions – in this case, eggs were only suitable for weekend breakfasts, when consumers had more time to prepare them.

Bundrock says there are a lot of positives in the category, with household egg consumption in Canada having increased year-over-year, as well as a dozen years of growth in retail sales. But Canada is still behind countries like Mexico and Japan in terms of consumption and, following consumer research, it found 40% of households are what it dubs “light” buyers who eat less than a dozen eggs a month, primarily turning to eggs for weekend breakfasts.

Further research revealed that it wasn’t affordability or negative health perceptions that was a hurdle for these consumers, but a perceived time constraint, as well as the idea that eggs provide limited meal options.

“Everyone associates eggs with morning, weekends, brunch, and that they take a long time to cook,” Bundrock says. “In these consumers minds, making eggs is hard and it takes a lot of time, and they also only think of fried eggs or scrambled eggs. The idea was to specifically target these households with the overall message that you can have them any time of the day, on any day, and provide lots of different ideas and recipes. They can be as simple as having hard-boiled eggs as an easy snack to something more elaborate, based on your cooking expertise.”

To that end, the creative (as well as the online recipe hub) showcase more intricate meal options, which Bundrock says makes the platform appealing to its regular egg consumer who might be looking for new recipes and options for eggs.

Bundrock says the rising consumption and sales numbers suggest that the egg category has not been as impacted by health concerns that have been leading to greater interest in plant-based diets, adding that consumers view it as a high-quality protein source. Earlier this year, the Egg Farmers of Canada launched the Egg Quality Assurance program, featuring a brand mark meant to assure consumers that egg products farmed and produced in Canada met food quality, safety and animal welfare standards, including with partners like McDonald’s Canada.

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The broader campaign includes ads on TV, online and social platforms, as well as day-parted digital out-of-home ads that show different egg-based meal ideas throughout the day. Bundrock says the campaign will run through the rest of the year, with plans to continue into 2020. The Egg Farmers also worked with Citizen Relations on the platform.