Clover Leaf’s challenge was to translate the energetic concept of last fall’s television spots – where a commuter is so pumped on protein, she ends up pole-dancing on the subway – to the two-dimensional medium. Mike Welling, president and brand strategist at Doug Agency, which created the campaign, believes they’ve achieved it with a flip book-format magazine advertisement for tuna in the February issue of Canadian Living.
‘If you’re willing to work with the media provider, and you talk about the things you can do to try and bring an idea to life, you start to challenge them,’ says Welling. ‘It helps to showcase that you can do innovative things inside that media vehicle.’
The flip book, which also has a tuna salad recipe on the back, emphasizes the nutritional qualities of the product while allowing the brand to have fun. It’s a one-off addition to the magazine campaign due to the production costs of printing the booklet.
‘If you can do something really well once, then you’re more likely to be remembered,’ says Welling about the benefits of a one-time special insert.
Another unique Clover Leaf effort is the sponsorship of CTV’s So You Think You Can Dance Canada, where the studio audience showed off their own moves in the Clover Leaf Energy Zone.
By placing the ads in magazines like Canadian Living and Chatelaine, the goal is to reach women 25 to 49, but also readers who are thinking about health and well-being, and who rely on mags as a credible source of information. The print campaign also includes two rotating executions in Today’s Parent, Best Health and the French magazines Ricardo and Coup de Pouce. Toronto-based Anne Wood of Good Wood Media handled the buy for Doug Agency.
‘One of the advantages of reading a magazine is that you’re less likely to be distracted in terms of multi-tasking,’ adds Welling. ‘So you can get some great involvement.’
