Lactalis is ditching the school buses and lunch boxes common in back-to-school messaging and replacing it with fresh packaging and shopper-side efforts that emphasize the brand’s role in improving youth mental health.

The brand’s “Snack & Give” promotion is a follow-up to the spring’s “Snack & Play” contesting effort, and instead focuses on the brand’s philanthropic partnership with the non-profit Kids Help Phone.

“Snack & Give” is running until Sept. 24 and is anchored by a hero visual that features a child using a yogurt container as one end of a telephone. Alongside that visual is a heavy shopper element, featuring full POP kits for displays and shelf media, web banners for ecommerce platforms and digital flyers, and materials for pre-shopping apps including Flipp and Reebee. Sponsored and owned social posts and PR support round out the effort.

“Knowing that the back-to-school period is especially stressful on kids and parents, the message that Lactalis has been a founding partner of the Kids Help Phone organization seemed timely,” Caroline Garneau, head of strategy at CRI – which partnered with Lactalis on the promotion – tells strategy.

Youth mental health has become a primary concern for many parents.

According to the Mental Health Index, 56% of parents report that their children’s mental health was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing this, and that 88% of consumers wish their favourite brands would help them make a positive impact in the world (according to the 2021 Shopper Insights & Measurements Forum), the agency suggested that Lactalis make its longstanding relationship with Kids Help Phone a cornerstone of its back-to-school efforts.

“Parents of young families are part of the Millennial generation,” says Garneau. “This demographic appreciates brands that go above being ‘product centric’ and are more ‘life or me centric,’ and that display a more humane approach to their commercial role.”

The effort is the first in which Lactalis’ various yogurt brands are presented as a family under a masterbrand umbrella, and Garneau adds that “while we were researching to build the Lactalis profile, we came across this willingness to do good in general and be a good corporate citizen.”

“Lactalis is truly built on human values and a will to contribute to our communities,” says Dominic Prigent, shopper marketing manager for Lactalis Canada. “We were happy to have the opportunity to communicate our genuine DNA through this campaign.”