Why Dairy Farmers of Ontario Created a Milk Glass Cookie Cutter Fusion to Support Children This Holiday Season
While many children can only imagine Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as times to enjoy the comforts of the home, unfortunately, not everyone is afforded that luxury. There are always those who struggle with illnesses and medical conditions, and sadly, the holiday season proves no exception in their need for care.
For the past five years, Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) has donated to SickKids and other Ontario-based hospitals - reaching $2.6 million up to date - with the hopes of bringing some cheer to those who can’t be home. But, monetary donations alone don’t help capture the joy of the holiday season. And to this end, this year, the organisation partnered up with agency Lifelong Crush with the hopes of bringing a classic pastime to the hospital - milk and cookies on Christmas Eve.
Specifically, the two developed a new milk glass that features a built-in cookie cutter on the bottom - an idea Santa will absolutely not be able to ignore. Called the ‘Magic Milk Glass’, each final design was pulled from the submissions of children across the province - ensuring the ideas were not only relatable, but represented the magic of what happens when children help children.
So, to discuss how this idea came to fruition, and what it took to actually bring to life in time for the holidays, LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Lifelong Crush CCO Derek Blais, and DFO’s director, marketing, Alicia Sumar, for a chat.
LBB> DFO has been supporting SickKids for five years now. Why is this important to the brand, and specifically, what makes SickKids the right choice?
Alicia> Dairy Farmers of Ontario is committed to nourishing communities across the province. Through the campaign, we can support patients and families spending the holidays in Ontario children’s hospitals. So, for the fifth consecutive year, DFO has donated to SickKids and other Ontario children’s hospitals reaching $2.6M to date, helping to support communities and bring cheer to those spending the holidays in the hospital.
LBB> With that in mind, what was the brief, and what immediate ideas came to mind?
Alicia> Our ‘Milk and Cookies’ campaigns always have a component where we ask Ontarians to join us in supporting the initiative. This year, we tasked LLC to create an innovative and interactive idea; an ‘unconstrained idea’ that could live online, in real life, and in the hearts and minds of Ontario’s children this holiday season. It’s the type of work LLC specialises in.
Derek> It’s been an absolute honour to help with this initiative! We had lots of initial ideas to help make the milk and cookies moment even more magical – one from the cutting room floor involved turning a milk glass into a lens for a magical Santa telescope! The part of the brief we kept coming back to was how to facilitate kids helping kids. How could DFO help kids outside of the hospital make kids inside of the hospital feel special about that milk and cookies moment? We wanted them to know Santa visits hospitals too.
LBB> Obviously, working in the framework of a milk-related campaign poses some interesting creative challenges. As such, how did you hone in on an idea that would feel original and powerful?
Derek> At Christmas, milk has a big moment; being the beverage of choice for Santa. And the glass that people leave out hasn’t changed for centuries. We wanted to combine kids helping kids, innovating a new milk glass and connecting it directly to the milk cookies moment. Moreover, we wanted to make something Santa would love and something that allowed kids to participate. So, we asked the question, ‘what if we could create a milk glass that does milk AND cookies all in one?
All in all, bringing milk and cookies into one seamless milk glass was an exciting, yet simple innovation we just had to do, and it was easy for kids to understand that their designs could help bring some cheer to kids in hospital during the holidays.
LBB> In terms of the design process, what was that like?
Derek> The work combines a few existing things – a high quality collectible keepsake, simple illustrations and 3D printing. Additionally, the details and accuracy were important to tell our story and keep the designs seamless, but all of these things came together perfectly.
Specifically, it was important to get kids involved, because if adults designed the cookies… they’d end up too complex to print. (And 3D printing/CNCing has come a long way too!)
LBB> How many submissions did you receive, and how long did it take to go through all of them?
Derek> We received so many designs, up until the last moments of the submission deadline. We loved looking through the submissions as each one brought such a smile to every member of the team working on this initiative. However, we had to move quickly to make sure the glasses would be delivered in time for Christmas Eve.
LBB> What was the vetting process like? Specifically, what made you choose the designs you did, and how many did you keep?
Derek> We had kids involved every step of the way, including helping give some guidance to our selections. Of course, our inner kids were involved too – it was so exciting and nostalgic to see all the designs and brought us all back to when we used to leave milk and cookies out for Santa. We didn’t have a set number, but wanted a good range of different designs.
LBB> And what was the glass-crafting process like! Tell us about how they came to life?
Derek> LOTS of prototypes. The hardest part was connecting the cookie cutter to the bottom of the glass and making it feel seamless. The cookie cutter also had to look as close to the original design as possible, so we had to simplify and turn the crayon illustration into a smooth-traced vector file for the CNC router.
LBB> What challenges have you faced during this project? How did you overcome them?
Derek> All ‘awwws’ aside, one of the hardest things was choosing the final designs. If we could have, we’d have made them all!
Technically, there were some hurdles with the vectorisation of children’s crayon drawings and the cookie cutter making process, but those were overcome with rounds and rounds of testing – delicious testing – we drank a lot of milk and made a lot of cookies in the process; not a bad few days in the office.
Alicia> To echo Derek, really, there were so many amazing illustrations from families across Ontario, so it was super hard to narrow them down. We also had some technical challenges turning the illustrations into 3D cookie cutter designs, but they turned out so great. It was a huge team effort, and everyone was excited to bring the designs to life and help spread some Christmas joy.
LBB> Do you have any memorable lessons learned from the making of this new campaign?
Derek> When agencies and clients can help facilitate something so creative, so positive, and do it with the product and a true insight at the core of the idea – that’s magic to me. It’s been so inspiring seeing this come to life and see the creativity these kids had in crafting their milk and cookie designs. It inspired my inner child and opened up the aperture of creativity.
Alicia> Something we really loved during this process was the idea of kids helping kids. Children have a lot of empathy and so much generosity. To see kids across Ontario wanting to help their fellow kids who can’t leave the hospital at Christmas was so heartwarming. They really understood what it meant and how they could help. We were honoured to be able to facilitate that spreading of joy.
LBB> Since launch, what has the initial response been like?
Derek> It’s been fantastic! Kids helping kids during the holidays with DFO bringing it all together? What more could you ask for at Christmas? It’s been so heartwarming to see our province and local communities come together like this.
Alicia> Parents absolutely love the initiative and the fact that DFO is not only donating again this year, but helping to facilitate that milk and cookies moment in such an authentic and innovative way. We can’t wait to see the milk glasses being dropped off at children’s hospitals later this week.
LBB> Is there anything you’d like to add for those who want to support the milk glass initiative?
Alicia> We’d encourage people to make their own cookie designs at home, inspired by some of ours – and leave them out with a nice big glass of milk for Santa!
LBB> Finally, do you have a favourite glass design?
Derek> Hard question! The happy Christmas whale by Jacob is pretty adorable!
Alicia> We love all the glasses the same, and when we see them all lined up together, it is a reminder that Ontarians have all rallied together to support children spending the holidays in the hospital.
