M&Ms wants a bigger piece of the lucrative Quebec market, and it’s starting to go after it more aggressively.

A multi-faceted long-term strategy kicked off last month, including OOH, online, TV and POP elements. This is the first Quebec-specific effort from M&Ms in over 10 years.

‘It’s a question of opportunity – they realized how incredibly underdeveloped the brand is here versus the size of the market,’ explains Maryse Sauvé, VP, client services director at BBDO Montreal, which developed the campaign. ‘They realized the product is appreciated here, but they have a huge top-of-mind awareness gap.’

To add local relevance while increasing profile, the candies are adopting French personas. Each M&M colour will boast its own French nickname for the Quebec-specific marketing efforts; for example, green is ‘la Princesse,’ while blue is ‘le Charminator,’ and will be voiced by prominent Quebec personalities.