The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) is celebrating a diverse range of tastes in a new campaign for TV and online.
The campaign, created by Cossette, features unscripted segments with customers casually describing their preferences – be it wine or cocktails or simply liking something with bubbles in it – in the first campaign in three years dedicated solely to promoting SAQ’s Inspire loyalty program, which aims to help consumers navigate and understand their personal tastes and personalize their purchases.
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“We needed this initiative to remain authentic by focusing on our employees’ valued contribution to the in-store experience. Our SAQ advisors help us develop and provide true expertise in this domain,” said Ariane de Warren, director of experiential marketing at the SAQ.
The SAQ’s Inspire program has nearly 1.9 million members across Quebec, and engagement has remained high in the six years since it launched. But whereas other loyalty programs focus on the way data can be used to personalize recommendations in an app, SAQ has often encouraged its customers to show their card to an in-store advisor, who can interpret their tastes and guide them to the right choice.
A 2019 campaign took a more humorous approach to making the selection at SAQ a little less intimidating by poking fun at some of the factors that guide people’s purchase decisions. This campaign amplifies the focus on getting people to try something new without straying from what they like, but was also designed to humanize the program and make its benefits clearer by showcasing real people and real advisors.
“From a creative standpoint, it seemed like a no-brainer to show how everyone has their own unique preferences by juxtaposing profiles from opposite ends of the spectrum,” said Anik Ouellet, CD at Cossette. “We wanted people to understand there’s no one right way of doing things, despite what they may believe about the world of wines and spirits.”
Cossette Media handled media planning for the campaign.
