Just in time for this year’s flu season, Jamieson Laboratories has released a flu prevention formula, FluShield.

The company is hoping to cash in on those who still have memories of last year’s brutal season and is targeting a TV and OOH campaign at mothers concerned about family health.

The TV ads start Nov. 1, just a couple of days after free flu shots become available in Toronto and many other cities across the country.

The ads will air on HGTV, the Weather Channel, CP24 and the History Channel. A microsite will also be launched Nov. 1, and OOH on transit will start in major markets early in 2011.

The creative and the media buy were done in-house.

The target is primarily women, 35-plus, who are well educated, Paula Prociuk Blacklock, head, corporate affairs and media relations, Jamieson, tells MiC.

‘The flu, of course, is something women share so much with their kids, and they tend to be the caretakers of their homes, so we want to make sure we get the message out to them,’ Blacklock says.

As well as promoting the FluShield product, the ads will be pushing viewers to the microsite, where they’ll be able to learn more about how Jamieson scientists used a particular type of echinacea that boosts immunity to the flu.

The concept isn’t a simple one, which is why Jamieson is targeting the channels they are.

‘We wanted to get into channels with a demographic that tended to skew more to a white-collar, educated person,’ Blacklock says. ‘You have to want to understand this message. The key message is that not all echinacea is equal.’