P.E.I. Lobster Love campaign now on a roll

The first P.E.I. Lobster Love campaign is underway with 75 restaurants serving up their own signature take on a lobster roll.

Each participating restaurant has designed and will be offering their creation until the end of July.

The Island food campaign is organized by the same company that manages P.E.I. Burger Love, which was postponed this year until September because of the global pandemic.

"We have a tremendous working relationship with Lobster P.E.I. and the conversation came about of maybe this is the time to do it," said Melody Dover, president and creative director of Fresh Media, the company managing the campaign.

"It is unprecedented times and why not put together something fun."

It is a partnership between Lobster P.E.I., P.E.I.'s Department of Fisheries and Communities, and Canada's Food Island.

Dover said it all happened very quickly with the final agreements coming together only three weeks ago.

This allowed organizers to offer restaurants the chance to participate in the inaugural year for free.

"We understand that obviously if you're a seasonal restaurant and you're kicking off your summer season with maybe some of the odds stacked against you, this would be a really easy ask for you to participate in an event that could bring some new customers through your door," Dover said.

"We're looking at this as a way to help as many small businesses as possible across the island."

'Good time to launch'

People visiting the P.E.I. Lobster Love website can find a map of the Island to see where all the participating restaurants are. There are pictures of the dishes being served, as well as the list of ingredients and where the lobster was supplied from.

It was also a chance to raise the profile of local lobster, said Lobster P.E.I. board chair Charlie McGeoghegan.

"We couldn't do it during the season because restaurants were closed for 90 per cent of the season," he said.

"So they just opened up and now with the Atlantic bubble open, we feel it's a good time to launch this program."

Local lobster sales

With the bait set, organizers are waiting to see how the inaugural year will go — and how many rolls will be sold — as tourists and Islanders get their first taste of the new Lobster Love campaign.

"That's the million dollar question right now, we're really not sure yet, it's early days," Dover said. 

"Over all of the years of Burger Love ... sales are really great but it's also about starting to create new loyal customers. That's an added benefit that is something that has been ongoing."

Lobster Love will continue at participating restaurants until July 31.

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