How Vachon Turned a Snack Cake Debate Into a Quebec Cultural Moment
Vachon's 2019 integrated campaign invited Quebecers to vote for the best snack cake from a shortlist of eleven beloved products, using a 60-second video, out-of-home signage, a dedicated microsite, and social media to ignite a lighthearted but genuinely passionate national conversation about confectionery loyalty in Canada.
The campaign, titled "Which is THE best Vachon snack cake?", was developed by Cossette, Vachon's agency of record, and launched publicly on November 12, 2019. Created for Grupo Bimbo's Vachon brand, the work asked consumers to settle what the campaign framed as a hot-button cultural question: among eleven of Vachon's most recognisable snack cakes — including the Passion Flakie, the Jos Louis, and the Ah Caramel — which one reigns supreme? Voting took place at thebestvachon.ca, through in-store purchase, and via social sharing, making participation accessible at every consumer touchpoint.
The campaign's strategic heart was the 60-second video, which depicted the great Quebec snack cake debate playing out in recognisable everyday settings: between co-workers, couples, and friends. Trade coverage by Campaign Canada in November 2019 positioned the work as "The Great Quebec Snack Cake Debate," underscoring the cultural specificity of the approach. The integrated campaign extended across television, online video, out-of-home advertising, influencer participation, and social media. A planned giveaway of approximately 500,000 units of the winning cake was announced for 2020, giving the campaign a forward momentum that outlasted its initial launch window. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100, reflecting its strong creative coherence and culturally grounded participation mechanic.
Vachon occupies a specific emotional territory in the Canadian snack and confectionery market. The brand's snack cakes are not simply purchased products for many Quebecers — they are carriers of generational memory, eaten after school and shared at family gatherings over decades. Michel-Alex Lessard, Vice-President, Strategy at Cossette, articulated the insight precisely: "Vachon cakes have always been a part of our lives. They bring back fond memories, and we've become attached to our favourite cake in a way that may be considered a bit irrational." That irrationality is not a weakness — it is the strategic engine of the campaign.
Grupo Bimbo acquired Vachon in 2015, according to Cossette's own documentation, and subsequently launched a new brand positioning in Quebec in 2017 before expanding it nationally in 2018. The 2019 campaign represents the participatory evolution of that repositioning, shifting from brand assertion to consumer co-authorship. By inviting Quebecers to declare a winner, Vachon transferred the brand's authority to its most loyal advocates.
The Canadian snack and confectionery category is competitive. In the United States, a comparable segment — pastry, Danish and coffee-cake products — reached two billion US dollars in 2019, up half a percentage point year over year, with private label holding approximately 22.7 percent of that segment, according to reporting by Strategy Online. In Canada, Vachon competes for shelf presence and consumer mindshare against national and private-label snack brands, as well as multinational confectionery players such as Hostess and McKee Foods, whose Little Debbie range held approximately 15.4 percent of the reported US segment according to Strategy Online. In this context, Vachon's nostalgia-led participation strategy represents a deliberate move to compete on cultural distinctiveness rather than price or distribution.
Cossette built the creative execution of the Vachon campaign around a single, durable insight: debates worth having take time. Anne-Claude Chénier, Vice-President, Creative Advertising at Cossette, stated directly: "When we start the debate on THE best Vachon, it won't be over in 15 seconds. It gets people fired up, which is why we needed to use a longer format to bring the concept to life." That decision to commit to a 60-second video — rather than the more commercially cautious 15- or 30-second formats — gave the creative team room to dramatise genuine human disagreement with warmth and specificity.
The film placed the snack cake debate inside recognisable everyday Canadian social situations: co-workers arguing across a desk, couples negotiating in a kitchen, friends divided at a table. The casting and tone were deliberately light-hearted, reflecting the affectionate absurdity of caring deeply about which snack cake is objectively best. The result is a film that feels less like advertising and more like a shared cultural reference point for Quebec audiences.
Beyond the film, Cossette created an edible wall containing approximately 1,000 packages of Vachon snack cakes, as reported by Strategy Online, extending the campaign into experiential territory and generating additional social content. Out-of-home signage and social posts amplified the voting mechanic, driving consumers to thebestvachon.ca and encouraging social sharing. The full creative team included Anne-Claude Chénier, Patrick Michaud, Christine Girard, Marc-André Lafrance, Guillaume St-Hilaire, Nicolas Doyon, Camille Lévesque, Marc Lessard, Anik Meunier-Tremblay, Cameron Hudson, Alexis Cadieux, and Marc Fafard, alongside strategy leads Michel-Alex Lessard and Sophie Giroux, as documented by Cossette.
The Vachon "Which is THE best Vachon snack cake?" campaign generated measurable consumer participation rapidly after its November 2019 launch in Canada. More than 50,000 people cast votes within approximately two weeks of the campaign going live, according to reporting by isarta.com and confirmed by Strategyonline Ca. That figure — achieved without paid incentive for voting itself — speaks directly to the depth of the brand's existing emotional equity among Quebec consumers.
The campaign's participation mechanic was deliberately multi-channel: votes could be cast at thebestvachon.ca, through the purchase of a qualifying box of snack cakes at grocery retail, or by sharing a pick on social networks. Each pathway reflected a different level of consumer investment, from the passive social share to the active in-store purchase, creating a funnel that converted general awareness into measurable brand engagement and incremental retail sales. As reported by coolfm.biz, the planned distribution of approximately 500,000 units of the winning snack cake in 2020 gave the campaign a second wave of anticipated engagement, extending its commercial relevance beyond the initial voting period.
No further independently verified performance data — including final vote counts, social reach, or sales uplift — is publicly available for this campaign. Structurally, however, the work demonstrates strong effectiveness architecture: a clear call to action, a time-bound participation window, a tangible prize mechanic, and a creative execution sufficiently involving to sustain a 60-second video format. The Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100 reflects this coherence, recognising the campaign's success in translating cultural affinity into organised consumer participation within the competitive Canadian confectionery and snacks category.
Vachon's 2019 integrated campaign, developed by Cossette in Canada, invited Quebecers to vote for their favourite snack cake from eleven iconic Vachon products. The campaign ran across television, online video, out-of-home advertising, and social media, with voting hosted at thebestvachon.ca and supported by a planned giveaway of 500,000 winning cakes in 2020.
Cossette created the campaign. The Montreal-based agency served as Vachon's agency of record in 2019. Key creative leads included Anne-Claude Chénier as Vice-President, Creative Advertising, and Michel-Alex Lessard as Vice-President, Strategy, with a full integrated team spanning creative, strategy, and production roles documented by Cossette.
More than 50,000 people voted within approximately two weeks of the campaign launching in November 2019, according to isarta.com and strategyonline.ca. Voting was open through the dedicated microsite thebestvachon.ca, through qualifying in-store snack cake purchases, and through social media sharing across Canada.
Cossette chose the 60-second format because the snack cake debate required room to breathe. Anne-Claude Chénier, Vice-President, Creative Advertising at Cossette, explained that the topic generates genuine passion and could not be credibly dramatised in a shorter format, making the longer film essential to capturing authentic everyday debate among Quebecers.
Grupo Bimbo owns Vachon. The Mexican multinational food company acquired the brand in 2015, according to Cossette's documentation. Grupo Bimbo subsequently relaunched Vachon's brand positioning in Quebec in 2017 and expanded it nationally across Canada in 2018, setting the foundation for the 2019 integrated campaign developed with Cossette.
Eleven Vachon snack cakes were eligible for voting in the 2019 campaign. The campaign specifically highlighted three products as cultural touchstones: the Jos Louis, the Passion Flakie, and the Ah Caramel, the latter described in campaign materials as best enjoyed straight from the freezer. All eleven products were available to vote on at thebestvachon.ca.
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