MiC’s mothership strategy wanted to know: which young media minds are breaking new ground, taking campaigns to the next level and delivering results? We asked the top brass at media agencies across the country to share who they think deserves a shout-out, and from whom we can expect even more big things to come. The winner will be determined by a jury and announced this fall.
The latest in the series, appearing in MiC every Monday for the next five weeks, is Trevor Bozyk, activation designer at J3 Canada in Toronto.
Claim to fame
To reach the schedule-challenged mommy demo for Johnson’s Baby brand, Trevor Bozyk, activation designer at J3 Canada, a division of Interpublic Group dedicated to Johnson & Johnson, spearheaded a partnership with Slice TV’s The Mom Show last year that would communicate on multiple levels – through online, branded content and live events.
Products like Head-to-Toe Baby Wash, Bedtime Bath and Lotion and Gold Shampoo were incorporated into a series of branded vignettes that are now a regular segment of The Mom Show. Johnson’s also sponsored a block of mom-relevant programs airing weekday afternoons, and Canwest repurposed some episodes from previous seasons of the show to incorporate the brands for rerun watchers. Bozyk’s team also chose Calgary as the location for The Mom Show‘s live kick-off.
Through hyper-targeting, Bozyk, 30, focused spend on the target and made sure the brand had a starring role in the content. ‘We’re really going to focus in and communicate where moms are spending their time – and not just women, but moms. That’s where your money works more efficiently for you.’
And the strategy worked – Johnson’s net trade sales grew 9.3%, awareness for Johnson’s sponsorship of The Mom Show increased by 20 percentage points, and awareness for Babycenter.ca, Johnson’s proprietary site that was often plugged with the branded content, was up by 19 percentage points.
The partnership is continuing into 2009. ‘We have produced 20 more episodes. We actually became bigger players in terms of underwriting and collaborating more on the actual production, which will begin again in September of this year,’ he says. The episodes have also been picked up by Women’s Television Network in the US. ‘It’s a great extension – Canada is now working on exporting some really great examples of branded entertainment,’ says Bozyk.
His next step is reaching moms who like to read about all aspects of motherhood online.
‘They’re worrying about fashion and about health, their husbands, their relationships, the best deals and the must-haves,’ he says. So Bozyk arranged a collaboration with Sweetmama.ca, a property of Toronto-based trend guide Sweetspot.ca, to weave Johnson’s into its copy. For instance, a soothing baby product like Johnson’s Baby Bath can be plugged into an article about how to plan a great date night, explains Bozyk.
‘It was another area that we felt was important for us to reach out and say, ‘Johnson’s is here for you every step of the way,” he says.
The background
Bozyk’s knack for production comes from a background in film and theatre, which he studied at Queen’s University. After graduation, the Vancouver native went back out west and attended Vancouver Film School for film production. His subsequent jobs in the film industry ranged from director’s and producer’s assistant to, most recently, marketing at Alliance Atlantis, which he did for three years before joining J3 in January 2008. He sees his film experience as a valuable resource for the types of media partnerships J3 is creating. ‘It really does culminate a lot of production and a lot of marketing, because it’s about producing content,’ he says.
How do you get branded entertainment right, so that consumers embrace it?
‘Having it be less about your brand shining through and more about the essence of what the person wants to learn. I think through that they’ll understand the association. You can say organic, you can say subtle, but I think the key is, you have to give them something they want, and without having the brand weigh too heavily on it.’
What is the next big media tactic?
‘We’re blurring the lines between what media is – it’s no longer a television and a magazine and then a computer. They’re all becoming one and the same; the future is about bringing them all together into one unified channel. Any time change is abreast, it presents a challenge – in both understanding and risk-taking – to really inspire innovation.’
