IGA Prepares Canadian Athletes for Success in Touching Animated Spot

As a sponsor of Team Canada at the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, IGA has partnered with creative agency Sid Lee to create a new short animated film. Titled ‘The Athlete’, this 60 second message is the surprise follow-up to ‘The Trophy’ released in November of last year.  

“As the official grocer of Team Canada, we are extremely proud to support, feed and help our athletes grow,” says Carl Pichette, vice-president of marketing for Quebec at Sobeys. "With this approach, we wanted to transcend the theme of surpassing oneself to show how much sharing a family passion, for both sports and food, can define an athlete's path in the pursuit of their Olympic and Paralympic dreams.”  

“The challenge we gave ourselves a year ago was an ambitious one: create a traditional IGA holiday story that sets the stage for Team Canada sponsorship, while keeping the effect of the surprise a  secret,” explains Julie Desrochers, creative director at Sid Lee. “Now that the second film has been released, we’re really looking forward to the public’s reaction.”  

Recipes for Champions 

This launch also marks the kick-off for the web series, ‘Recipes for Champions’, featuring Team Canada‘s athletes from Quebec Mikaël Kingsbury (freestyle skier), Mélodie Daoust (ice hockey player), Max Parrot (snowboarder), Laurent Dubreuil (speed skater) et Frédérique Turgeon (Para alpine skier).  

Led by chef Stefano Faita, these five capsules present our athletes attempting to concoct a better version of a favourite childhood recipe, in a competition against their own parents. A fun pretext to discover the connections between family, food and elite sports.  

Empire Company Limited and its family of brands will provide grocery cards to all qualified 2022 Winter  Olympic and Paralympic athletes. This will ensure that the athletes can prepare all of their favourite recipes. The grocery cards can be redeemed for nutritious food at Empire banner stores, including IGA. 

The IGA film ‘The Athlete’ is available to watch on the web, television, and on social media until February 20th, 2022. To watch ‘Recipes for Champions’ and the whole Feed the Dream campaign, visit here.