*This content was originally published on [Morning Brew](https://www.morningbrew.com/retail/stories/2022/03/30/why-canadian-cities-are-so-popular-as-test-markets) on March 30, 2022 and was written by* *Andrew Adam Newman.* ### Northern exposure London, Ontario, is a popular city both for Canadian brands to test pilot products before rolling them out across Canada, and for US brands to do so before introducing them in the states. - It was one of the markets where McDonald’s first [piloted](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-30/does-mcdonald-s-sell-beyond-meat-why-canadians-get-first-taste) its Beyond Meat burger in 2019. - London also, at least [according](https://maisonneuve.org/article/2019/09/27/norm-core/) to local lore, is one of the first places in Canada that McDonald’s introduced its McNuggets and its ill-fated (but [obsessed over](https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/mcdonalds-canada-no-mcpizza)) pizza. (Both McDonald’s in the US and Canada did not respond to requests for interviews.) “London, I think, offers the right mix of a large urbanized environment, but still with dynamics that are easier to test with,” Kapil Lakhotia, president and CEO of the London Economic Development Corporation, told us. Thanks to Canada’s comparatively [open immigration policy](https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-canadas-immigration-policy), Lakhotia said that in London, immigrants make up 25% of the population and more than 140 languages are spoken—all within a regional population of ~700,000. “All of that creates a very good dynamic for marketers to try out products that would appeal to a variety of different people and a variety of different socioeconomic demographics,” Lakhotia said. Of course, retailers could gauge responses from a diverse population in a city like New York, but part of a pilot program involves placing and testing advertising, which is a lot more affordable in a market like London. Pilot programs “have to simulate the rollout of another market,” Bruce Winder, a Toronto-based retail consultant and author of Retail Before, During & After Covid-19, said. “Because when retailers test, it’s all about having new media come out of that market—maybe some TV ads, radio ads, print. In a small market like London, you can control all those things in a vacuum.” Read article [here](https://www.morningbrew.com/retail/stories/2022/03/30/why-canadian-cities-are-so-popular-as-test-markets).