Swiss Chalet is going after younger audiences to spur interest in its app, including the ability to gift a meal.

The latest version of the restaurant’s app launched in November of last year, giving users the ability to curate a list of favourite orders, save deals in their “Coupon Wallet,” as well as track their order with a real time delivery status map. It also features the “Give a Gift” function, which allows people to pay for and send a meal to someone.

However, last year’s holiday campaign celebrated the ways families were staying connected during the pandemic, rather than its typical Festive Special promo, so this year with the focus back on the annual meal deal, Swiss Chalet is now touting the app’s functionality.

The giving feature of the app is emphasized in a campaign showing a number of generosity archetypes, like someone who always takes kitchen duty or someone who always clears snow. It then makes the Festive Special the hero once again, but links it to the “Give a Gift” function as one of the send-a-meal options available.

The giving insight became a universal place to focus on, and highlighting those who are considerate of others, says Kim Tarlo, partner and ECD at Mint, which created the campaign. It was especially important to do that in the context of family, given how family-focused Swiss Chalet is as a brand.

With a lot of focus on special moments and aspiration around the holidays, Tarlo says Swiss Chalet wanted to show “real givers who make the holidays happen in a real way,” and that meant using crowd-sourced, real-life home videos and photos of Canadians from coast to coast.

The treatment gives it a nostalgic feel, a tribute to Swiss Chalet’s Canadian heritage. The same goes for the Festive Special’s inclusion in the spot, Tarlo says, as it’s part of numerous Canadian traditions around the holidays.

The campaign is all digital, with online videos, banners and social ads focusing on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube until Christmas Day to resonate with a younger demo, and to have an easy connection with the site and app and a shorter path to follow. The Swiss Chalet team did the media buy internally.