CELEBRATING 134 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
FEBRUARY 2014
VOLUME 64 NUMBER 02
METAL PUSH IN SOCHI
Root for reigning Olympic champion and PEI potatoes KAREN DAVIDSON Not yet a household name, Heather Moyse is poised to race into your consciousness during the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. She’s the defending champion and brakeman in women’s bobsleigh. What makes Moyse special to the Canadian produce industry is that she’s brand ambassador for Prince Edward Island potatoes. “Heather Moyse is already gold,” says Kendra Mills, director of communications, PEI Potato Board. “We’ve had one million dollars in media value to date. During the Olympics, we’re at the pinnacle of why we did this in the first place.” Sponsorship promotion is verboten during the Olympics with athletes under strict rules on what they can wear and say. However, the rules are less restrictive for the World Cup circuit. It’s hard to put a price on the value of Moyse’s smiling face and headband: I Love PEI Potatoes. That’s what appeared on the front cover of the Globe and Mail’s sports section December 17 after Moyse and pilot Kaillie Humphries won gold at the Lake Placid, New York venue. As they finished the World Cup’s European leg of Winterberg, St. Moritz, Igles and Konigssee in January, they are hot contenders for the gold medal
INSIDE OFVGA Award of Merit
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Focus: Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention Section B
www.thegrower.org P.M. 40012319 $3.00 CDN
Weighing in at 72 kilograms, Heather Moyse (second from left) is worth her weight in gold. She’s the 35-year-old defending Olympic champion for women’s bobsleigh and brand ambassador for PEI potatoes. Don’t underestimate the pride of the Island’s 330 growers who have sponsored Moyse for three years in return for some plugs for potatoes. They estimate one million dollars of publicity earned to date. Here Moyse and her bobsleigh pilot Kaillie Humphries are pictured in Lake Placid, New York in a first-place, World Cup finish on December 14. Photo by Ken Childs.
in Sochi. That’s where we’ll see more homegrown coverage. CBC TV Sports visited Prince Edward Island last summer to film Moyse in potato fields and to capture a perspective from the local mayor, friends and family. The series is appropriately titled “It takes a village.” Three years ago, the Fresh Marketing Committee of the PEI Potato Board considered the merits of hiring Moyse. In Canadian agriculture, growers have few templates to demonstrate the benefits of partnerships with Olympic-calibre athletes. The best known is the Beef Information Centre’s sponsorship of Olympic pairs skaters Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler in 1993. Gary Linkletter, chair of the PEI Potato Board, recalls that the only debate was about whether they could carve out enough budget to make a difference to Moyse. “An opportunity to be affiliated with a world-class
athlete doesn’t come along every day,” says Linkletter. The linkages seemed obvious since Moyse is a Summerside, PEI native. Beyond that, her fresh-faced enthusiasm and media-savvy talents made her ideal to talk about the nutritional benefits of potatoes. As an elite athlete who also competes in track cycling and rugby, Moyse is a year-round role model for making potatoes part of a healthy diet. She’s ready to punch holes in the myth that carbohydrates don’t deserve a place on the plate. That’s the message she’s taken on media tours, making the rounds of national shows such as CTV’s Canada AM and CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. She’s also signed autographs at the PEI Potato Growers’ booth at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. “There’s nothing more down-to-earth than Heather Moyse draping a gold medal around a five-year-old’s neck,” says Linkletter. “She’s authentic
and so personable.” It’s difficult to measure whether Moyse improves booth traffic but her presence adds a fresh reason to email news releases and send tweets. She delivers a message that elevates potatoes to an elite status. In social media alone, she has more than 4,100 Twitter followers and often tweets about potatoes at mealtime. “My hat is off to the PEI Potato Board,” says Martin Gooch, CEO of Value Chain Management International Inc. “As a whole, the vegetable category is not as advanced in positioning and branding as fruit. Few examples exist where vegetables have created added value by exciting and engaging consumers.” Gooch cites the example of how bananas have become intertwined with South African marathons and become synonymous with what to eat before and after a race. Creating value by connecting produce with
athletics was used to successfully position bananas as a “must have” item. Yet potatoes actually contain more potassium than bananas, so he thinks there’s an opportunity to position potatoes in North America as the go-to fuel. Instead of a pasta supper the night before racing, why not a potato supper? Coincidentally, Gooch’s firm is currently working with the Ontario Potato Board on ways to improve fresh marketing. Their consumer research has shown how rapidly the marketplace has changed and that a swath of consumers perceive potatoes as not healthy or convenient. Most troubling is that consumers under 50 years of age – with higher levels of education and aboveaverage incomes – hold this sentiment. “That’s alarming news for the potato industry because these consumers will likely hold these views for their entire lives,” says Gooch. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3