TD has invested in an OOH activation to promote its Accessibility Adapter, a tool that allows people with conditions such as dyslexia, low vision and epilepsy, to customize their online viewing experience.

The brand’s “Visible Billboard” consists of a giant OOH ad with the words “If you can see this, it’s because we see you,” which are only visible to people with colour blindness impairment.

Created by colorblind artist Paul Scott Canavan, the billboard encourages viewers to experience how different it is to see for those who are visually impaired and those who are not. The ad will be on display in Toronto’s Distillery District until October 6. It will also be supported on digital and social, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, as well as digital OOH ads at various locations, such as Union Station.

“We chose OOH because we wanted something impactful. We could achieve the reach we wanted with our digital and social channels but we wanted a way to demonstrate this powerful message of accessibility in a big way,” Tyrrell Schmidt, chief marketing officer at TD Bank Group, tells Media in Canada.

According to Schmidt, TD is launching the activation as a call to make the Internet more accessible based on research by the non-profit organization WebAIM that showed that only 3% of the Internet is accessible to such users. People with vision concerns are also three times less likely to not go online because of these barriers, so the team decided to create advertising that would give importance to even just a small part of that community, Schmidt says.

The OOH billboard is also an ideal way to target people with colour blindness and people with visability concerns in general, while drawing attention to the general public at the Distillery District, she adds.

The activation aligns with the brand’s latest marketing efforts, which have been focused on showcasing its commitment to making its products more accessible. Last week, TD launched a TV and social campaign to promote its TD Direct Investing, a platform that makes stock investing more accessible to consumers. According to TD, the product is the first bank-owned stock brokerage in Canada to offer real-time partial stock trades.

Unison handled media buying, while Diamond Marketing Group was in charge of influencers. Ogilvy led strategy and creative development.