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How IGA and Sid Lee Turn In-Store Expertise Into a Brand Moment
IGA's 'At Your Service!' is a film-led retail campaign created by Sid Lee, launched in Canada in May 2025, that positions the grocery chain's in-store specialists — butchers, fishmongers, bakers, and clerks — as the defining advantage of the shopping experience across Quebec and New Brunswick.
The campaign launched on May 12–13, 2025, as reported by Strategy and Campaign Canada, and comprises three media assets anchored by 15-second and 30-second television spots. The work was developed for IGA, a grocery banner operated by Sobeys Inc., part of Empire Company Limited, with media handled by Carat. Rather than promoting price or product range, 'At Your Service!' directs attention to the human infrastructure of the store — the specialist who knows their trade and the customer by name. This is a deliberate repositioning of service itself as a competitive differentiator in the Canadian grocery market.
In Canada, where grocery retail is contested by a small number of dominant players and consumer expectations around value and experience are simultaneously rising, the campaign finds its strategic purpose. The executions use IGA's established animated visual language, per coverage by Strategy, to bring warmth and distinctness to a category that rarely invests in tonal character. The campaign is scheduled to run through June 26, 2025, according to reporting by Strategy and Little Black Book, giving it a focused six-week window across two of Canada's most culturally distinct provincial markets. Clapboard's editorial archive documents the campaign under both its English title, 'At Your Service!', and its French equivalent, 'Vous êtes servis!', reflecting its bilingual market reach.
IGA operates in a Canadian grocery landscape defined by consolidation and scale. The chain's strategic decision to centre its 2025 narrative campaign on employee expertise rather than promotional mechanics reflects a clear reading of where differentiation is possible. The largest competitors in Canada's grocery sector — Loblaw Companies and Metro Inc. — command significant market share and advertising spend, with Loblaw in particular using its loyalty infrastructure and private label range as primary consumer touchpoints. Against that context, IGA's positioning through 'At Your Service!' stakes a claim on a terrain those competitors rarely occupy: the texture of the in-store relationship.
The insight driving the campaign, as articulated by Sid Lee copywriter Quentin Fachon to lbbonline.com, is a desire to reconnect consumers with the simple sense of wonder that comes from stepping into an IGA store. That observation carries strategic weight. Physical grocery retail remains dominant globally — online grocery represents a growing but still modest share of total sales, according to Mordor Intelligence — and in Canada, where IGA's footprint is concentrated in Quebec and New Brunswick, the in-store experience retains outsized importance. The store's specialists are not incidental to the offer; they are the offer.
Carat's involvement as media agency signals that the campaign's distribution strategy is as considered as its creative premise. The bilingual execution across Quebec and New Brunswick, covered by both Strategy and isarta.com at launch, also acknowledges the linguistic and cultural specificity of IGA's core markets. A campaign that speaks French as fluently as English is not a logistical detail — in Quebec's grocery context, it is a statement of belonging.
Sid Lee constructs 'At Your Service!' around IGA's recognisable animated aesthetic. Per Strategy's reporting, the agency used this established visual style to spotlight the expertise of individual store employees, giving each specialist — the butcher, the fishmonger, the baker, the clerk — a moment of genuine craft and character within the compressed format of a television spot. The choice to animate rather than document is not stylistic comfort; it allows the creative team to heighten and idealise the in-store encounter without the friction of live-action production constraints, while maintaining the warmth that the brand's visual language has built over time.
The campaign comprises three films, delivering its argument across 15-second and 30-second formats, as documented by lbbonline.com and confirmed in Clapboard's archive. The shorter format disciplines the storytelling, demanding that each employee's expertise be communicated in a single clear gesture or exchange. The 30-second executions have room to let the character breathe — to show not just competence but personality. Together, the two formats serve different media contexts: the 15-second spot operates as a reminder in high-frequency placements, while the 30-second version does the heavier narrative work.
Creative credits documented by lbbonline.com identify Quentin Fachon as copywriter at Sid Lee, and Caroline Duhamel, Director of Marketing Communications at Sobeys, as the client lead. The collaboration reflects a brand organisation that understands what its agency is capable of and gives the work room to operate with tonal consistency. The campaign's bilingual execution — 'At Your Service!' in English, 'Vous êtes servis!' in French — adds a layer of craft that is easy to overlook but essential to the work's credibility in its primary market of Quebec.
No verified performance data for 'At Your Service!' is publicly available at the time of writing. The campaign launched in mid-May 2025 and is scheduled to conclude on June 26, 2025, per reporting by Strategy and lbbonline.com, meaning full post-campaign measurement has not yet entered the public record. What can be assessed is the structural logic of the work and its alignment with the brand's competitive position in Canada.
The campaign's effectiveness argument rests on specificity. By naming the roles — butcher, fishmonger, baker, clerk — rather than invoking a generic notion of customer service, 'At Your Service!' creates a concrete and memorable register. Consumers in Quebec and New Brunswick are given a reason to associate IGA not with a category benefit but with a cast of real, knowable people. That is a different and more durable kind of brand equity than a promotional message can build.
The three-asset structure, documented in Clapboard's archive and reported by Campaign Canada, also reflects disciplined media thinking. Three films across two formats provide sufficient variety to avoid wear-out across a six-week run without diluting the central creative idea. The animated approach, consistent with IGA's existing visual identity as noted by Strategy, ensures the work reads as part of an ongoing brand conversation rather than a standalone interrupt. Clapboard scores 'At Your Service!' at 56 out of 100, reflecting competent execution of a clearly defined strategic brief with room to develop greater creative ambition in future iterations.
IGA's 'At Your Service!' is a film campaign created by Sid Lee, launched in Canada in May 2025. It spotlights the grocery chain's in-store specialists — butchers, fishmongers, bakers, and clerks — as the defining experience of shopping at IGA across Quebec and New Brunswick, positioning human expertise as the brand's primary differentiator.
Sid Lee created 'At Your Service!' for IGA, a grocery banner operated by Sobeys Inc. Carat served as media agency. The campaign's copywriter was Quentin Fachon at Sid Lee, with Caroline Duhamel, Director of Marketing Communications at Sobeys, leading on the client side, as documented by lbbonline.com.
IGA ran 'At Your Service!' in Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada. The campaign launched on May 12–13, 2025, as reported by Strategy and Campaign Canada, and is scheduled to conclude on June 26, 2025. It ran in both English and French, reflecting the bilingual character of IGA's primary markets.
The campaign uses IGA's established animated visual style, per Strategy's reporting, to portray individual store specialists with warmth and character. Rather than leading with price or product, the work frames employee expertise as the core brand benefit — an unusual and specific claim for a Canadian grocery retail campaign in 2025.
Clapboard scores 'At Your Service!' at 56 out of 100. The score reflects competent execution of a clearly defined strategic brief, with the animated craft and human-focused narrative working effectively within IGA's existing brand language, while leaving room for greater creative ambition in future campaign iterations.
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