Metro has given a brand refresh to its online delivery service across Ontario and Quebec in a bid to be seen as customizable and homier.

Based around an “As You Wish” message, the new look is meant to convey the banner’s more bespoke services to differentiate it from the mechanized, less personal competitor Voilà by Sobeys, which sources delivery from a central warehouse.

Martin Beauvais, creative partner at Open, which secured the account after doing some private label work for the banner, says that especially in the Quebec market, where Metro is based, there is a very close personal connections between local grocer operators and their constituency. Plus, there’s an expectation of customization when someone orders from Metro, that is perhaps not as prevalent with the competition.

The new look is based on the insight that grocery shopping is very personal – and that people like their groceries just so, and that 50% of people say that the inability to touch and feel their items is the biggest roadblock to ordering online.

“This is a busy category, a category that is fast-evolving,” Beauvais says, with the likes of Uber and Instacart competing against grocer-owned services, a space that he calls a “clash of the titans” that Metro had to compete in.

Beauvais says that during the brief, everything was on the table, but the team decided against branding delivery services separately for the grocer, like Empire does with Voilà.

“In the end we [all] thought it was probably stronger to associate it with Metro,” he says. “They want to deliver groceries exactly as if you yourself were picking the pasta and tomatoes.”

Metro is eschewing another convention by not having its vehicles pasted with images of food and produce, but merely designed with austere, simple font against its signature red to make it stand out on the roads. The “As You Wish” platform is a clear brand point of view that’s tapping an already recognizable and defining icon with the red truck, which already connotes delivery on its own.

According to Beauvais, the truck had to be bold, but also convey what it does for the customer, and he admits that the visibility and brand promise of Voilà served as an inspiration.

“The Voilà truck is fantastic,” he concedes, and that moving billboards like trucks, if done right, can be hugely effective marketing tools.

The “As You Wish” campaign is fully integrated across multiple touchpoints including OOH, digital, website, email marketing and the delivery trucks themselves. There is also point of sale, however, as Beauvais notes, with a core audience already shopping in the store, the retail component isn’t as prominent.