Activia strikes a balance with new campaign

Activia is adding some inner balance to its latest “Activia Challenge” campaign, which kicked off last month.

As with past challenges, the Danone-owned brand is encouraging women to eat two Activia yogurts a day for two weeks, to get their digestive health back on track. But, this time, Activia also wants participants to take two minutes every day to focus on themselves and their well-being.

The holistic approach builds on the brand’s global brand positioning and marketing campaign, “Live InSync,” which launched last September.

The aim is to engage a younger target audience - women 29 to 39 - in a dialogue about achieving balance in their lives, and move the brand to more emotional territory. Previous campaigns targeted women over 40 and focused on the functional benefits of Activia.

With the Activia Challenge, “we wanted to go a step further into our new ‘Live InSync’ positioning by having women experience what it means to be aligned with their body and mind,” says Geneviève Bolduc, marketing director at Danone Canada.

To promote the challenge, the brand enlisted TV host Dina Pugliese in English Canada, and short-track speed skater Marianne St-Gelais in Quebec. The two brand ambassadors appear in 15 and 30-second TV and online videos. St-Gelais also appears in out-of-home ads in Montreal Metro stations.





The brand also partnered with fitness, lifestyle, and health and nutrition bloggers who are taking the Activia Challenge and writing about their experiences.

On Activia’s social platforms, the brand is providing a daily dose of motivation for participants. “Every day, we’re encouraging people to take on the challenge, exchanging tips on digestive well-being, nutrition, recipes and how to live a healthy lifestyle,” says Bolduc.

On the retail side, partnerships with Loblaws, IGA and Walmart include point-of-sale displays, radio messages and contests. For example, participants have the chance to win one year of groceries at IGA. On the Activia Challenge microsite, participants also have the chance to win prizes, such as wellness getaways at a Fairmont hotel. The contest closes Feb. 20.