The Out-of-Home Marketing Association has teamed up with Toronto-based Brandspark International to transform the annual Best New Product Awards into a thriving online community. An OOH campaign worth over $700,000 aims to get grocery shoppers online and interacting at BestNewProducts.ca. Using ad space from OMAC members Astral Media Outdoor, CBS Outdoor Canada, NEWAD, Pattison Outdoor and Zoom Media, the four-week campaign will hit Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver with posters in transit shelters, malls, health clubs, resto-bars and subway stations. Some of the posters include SMS codes that, when entered at the newly re-vamped website, give them the chance to win a shopping bag full of the 45 products featured in the 2007 awards on Feb. 8.
Eight executions were developed by Toronto’s ACLC Advertising, each featuring a humorous consumer quote thanking Robert Levy, president and CEO of BrandSpark International and the founder of the Best New Product Awards program. ‘My dog ended his hunger strike. Thanks Robert,’ reads one execution. Another reads: ‘I used to be a Cereal Monogamist. Then I found Robert.’ The mobile codes on selected posters are powered by Toronto-based Jambo Mobile.
The revamped website features a consumer forum that allows users to discuss, evaluate and rank their favourite products in an environment composed of early adopters and influencers. They can also collect points redeemable for rewards and receive information from influential experts including nutritionists and health professionals. A number of videos feature in-store interviews with consumers. Buy.com, Driving.ca are prominently featured advertisers at BestNewProducts.ca.
The Best New Product Awards is one of the largest independent consumer surveys about new product development and innovation to ever be conducted in Canada, including responses from over 10,000 Canadians. Media sponsors include Canadian Living, Global Television, and the National Post.
