P.E.I. potatoes in the spotlight in 7 new vignettes

The P.E.I. Potato Board is rolling out a series of short videos designed to give people a peek into where Island potatoes come from.

The seven vignettes are a spin-off of an advertising campaign the board launched in 2017, with the tagline: It takes an Island.

Mark Phillips, marketing specialist at the board, said the original TV commercial, and now the vignettes, are aimed at consumers.

"They're more interested than ever in where their food comes from, the process behind getting P.E.I. potatoes to your plate," Phillips said. 

"There's a lot of misinformation out there so just to show some facts about potato production on P.E.I."

Phillips said, even on P.E.I., there are some consumers who don't know where potatoes come from because Islanders are less connected to farming than they used to be. 

"I've had some good friends that are very smart that don't know how potatoes come out of the ground," Phillips said.

"I was actually playing a soccer game and a guy kicked the ball in the field and asked what kind of field it was."

'They're unique'

One of the themes of the vignettes is the uniqueness of P.E.I. potatoes, part of the branding that the board is trying to reinforce.

"Anytime you can get awareness out there that your potatoes are available, why they're special, why they're unique, it goes a long way," Phillips said.

"To remind people that they're available, get our logo out there and have people search for them in stores."

The vignettes, as with the original TV commercial, feature Island farmers who responded to a call from the board.

"They're all farmers, there's no actors there," Phillips said. 

"Our farmers are great, they always want to help out whenever there's a chance to remind people what we do."

P.E.I. brand

Jason Hayden, chairman of the P.E.I. Potato Board, said the vignettes do a good job of explaining farming on Prince Edward Island.

"I think there's a segment of people that haven't been around the farms very much, and are interested to see this and get this connection and to see where the food is coming from," Hayden said.

Hayden said the Island is a unique place to grow potatoes, but not without its challenges, as farmers have seen over the last couple of years.

"There's no doubt we've had good growing conditions and we've had very challenging growing conditions, so we take the good with the bad," Hayden said.

Hayden said he's proud to see P.E.I. potato farmers in the vignettes.

"I've heard nothing but good about them," Hayden said.

"It tells the story in a very positive way."

More to come

The vignettes on planting and harvesting have been posted, with plans to roll out the rest over the next season.

The board has also shared them at public events, such as Open Farm Day and Farm Day in the City.

"With YouTube and Facebook, you can measure all the results for that stuff," Phillips said.

"Probably the best response we have, I had a young girl just sit there and watch the whole roll through twice and she said she wanted to be a farmer afterwards."

This is the third year for the campaign, that airs on TV on P.E.I. and in digital placements in Atlantic Canada and Ontario. 

The original commercial in 2017 was paid for by potato farmers, through levy fees collected on the sale of P.E.I. potatoes, along with some funding from the provincial government.

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