In the spring, Tanguay enlisted its media agency Media Experts to help it solve a new problem.

In May, parent company Group BMTC turned its 11 Brault & Martineau stores into Tanguay locations, while its five EconoMax and LiquidaMeuble stores became Tanguay L’Entrepôt.

While the Tanguay brand had strong roots in Quebec City and Trois Rivieres, it needed to introduce itself to shoppers in places like Montreal, Sherbrooke and Gatineau, where Brault & Martineau was the more well-known name.

Media Experts created a two-fold strategy to ensure the message reached a critical mass within the core target audience: province-wide traditional media, as well as always-on digital strategy targeting conversions, supplemented with homepage takeovers, banners and digital video to increase awareness and consideration.

For the campaign, Media Experts used digital direct, programmatic, social media (Meta, Pinterest, TikTok) and search, as well as TV, radio, OOH and newspaper. Through brand lift studies, Media Experts identified key geographic regions of Montreal and Western Quebec and segments, as well as English-speaking Quebecers with low awareness scores and targeted these groups with the media deployment.

But to reach residents in the frame of mind to be looking for a furniture store – as well as intercept those who might have otherwise visited  Brault & Martineau – Media Experts also used Tanguay’s sales data from the past four years to optimize the budget for seasonal changes in consumer spending. Targeting was adapted to product categories and sub-categories in high demand at various times during the year, as well as the preferred purchase channels such as online, telephone or in-store. To temper the impact of the brand consolidation announcement, Media Experts recalibrated the monthly targets and adjusted the budget allocation by funnel level to align with the consumer buying journey.

The results have been positive. Following the campaign, Tanguay doubled its average unprompted awareness when consumers were shown a list of provided options, an increase that was seen across the province, as was the an increase in the likeliness to purchase in the next 12 months.