Chive Stores Spotlights Resale Culture with Tongue-in-Cheek Sale Campaign

Consumers in Canada who are looking for a bargain spend millions on resale sites such as Marketplace, Kijiji and Ebay. And year over year, it’s growing, driven by trends such as thrifting and the economic downturn. 

A new tongue-in-cheek, sale campaign from Chive, a Toronto based chain of plant pot retail stores, leans into resale culture and encourages people to resell the pots and vases they just bought for a profit.

The campaign by Toronto creative agency Berners Bowie Lee compares the lower sale prices at Chive’s Toronto stores to higher prices for the same items found on Marketplace. 

“In this economy, summer sale ads are everywhere, they all say the same thing and discretionary income is falling fast in Toronto. So, our first question was how we will make people care about yet another sale?” said Devon Williamson, co-founder of Berners Bowie Lee.

The agency decided to tap into resell and thrift culture after learning that it was cheaper to buy new at the Chive sale than to buy second-hand Chive’s pots and vases on Marketplace and Kijiji. 

“Reframing the Chive sale from something that saves people money to something that makes them money is, of course, tongue in cheek, but it’s a fresh way to nudge people into visiting the stores or the site” said Michael Murray, co-founder of Berners Bowie Lee. 

The campaign is in line with other playful work the brand has run previously and includes OOH, social, display, POP and influencer marketing.