Egg Farmers of Canada (EFC) is a national organization that represents Canada’s more than 1,000 regulated egg farmers in all provinces and the Northwest Territories. In 2015, EFC identified the multicultural market as a segment to support that growth. ‘Get Cracking’ is the consumption brand for ‘Egg Farmers of Canada’.

The challenge was to get Chinese-Canadians to use eggs to prepare special, festive dishes to surprise their families during the Lunar New Year season. The campaign’s KPIs were mainly digital. The success of Get Cracking is measured by movements in overall consumption of eggs year by year, but it can’t be attributed to one campaign.

To make every LNY meal special, there is a need for new meal ideas that will surprise families and friends. Lunar New Year is not just the New Year’s Eve dinner. It is a whole ‘season’ of eating together with family, friends, colleagues, business partners, etc. There is a lot of pressure on Chinese-Canadian cooks (usually Moms) to surprise their family and friends with something new at every meal during this ‘season’. Another cultural aspect of this tension is the ‘auspiciousness’ associated with the festival.

The idea was to demonstrate that eggs can help make innovative meals that surprise family and friends and add to the festive spirit. Eggs are so versatile that they should be partners in all your kitchen missions during LNY and beyond.

The agency was talking to all generations of Chinese-Canadians who are involved in cooking meals for their family and friends during the Lunar New Year season. They are mostly women, 25-55. They make special meals all through the LNY season for family and friends.

The two components of their platform were ‘food art’ and ‘Chinese fusion recipes’. The primary step in rolling this out was influencer based with Eric Chong, Season 1 winner of MasterChef Canada. Eric and Michelin Star Chef Alvin Leung own R&D Restaurant in Toronto. This tie-up helped the campaign at three levels: 1, Eric is an achiever from within the community, popular, in particular among younger/ Gen 2 Chinese-Canadians. 2, Eric was the perfect candidate to promote the versatility of eggs. And 3, With Eric’s set up at R&D, there was a platform to promote eggs beyond the LNY campaign.

Eric created various recipes with eggs that were a fusion of Chinese, Western and South-East Asian cuisines. These recipes reinforced the egg's versatility by this fresh ‘fusion’ take on LNY meals.

While Eric’s recipes were a modern, fusion take on Chinese cuisine, they needed a strong connection to the festival. This was achieved by giving auspicious names to the recipes. These recipes also formed the core creative idea, which again emanated from a powerful cultural symbol. Food Art is a centuries old art form and is still loved by the Chinese. Eric’s recipes were then styled into Food Art. The Food Art actually spelled ‘Fortune’ on a plate.

The campaign gained high digital engagement from all audiences - Gen 1 Cantonese/ Mandarin speakers and English speaking Gen 2 Chinese-Canadians. The Eggs Consumption Omnibus Survey Nov 2020, conducted by the Get Cracking team, observed that Chinese-Canadians are eating more eggs than the National average, Chinese-Canadians are more likely to purchase ‘tray of 30’ eggs than the National average and Chinese-Canadians are eating more eggs for dinner compared to the National average.

The Digital Display Campaign had a high CTR of 0.8% leading to 112,000 user sessions on the website. The top pages were the ‘auspicious’ LNY recipes. The recipes and Eric Chong’s association with Eggs were also picked up and covered by Chinese media.

Gen 2 Chinese-Canadians were targeted by the English campaign. The novelty of seeing a Lunar New Year campaign in English was evident by the huge peak in the English website visits at the start of the campaign. The English campaign also saw more returning visits than the Chinese campaign (although the engagement among Gen 1 Chinese was higher).