Annette Bourdeau
Canadian Dove work goes viral
Evolution hit #1 on YouTube, an evolution that began with Ogilvy Toronto.
After Dark Film Fest unspools social network campaign
New Toronto festival lures film buffs with a cast of genre-related characters via MySpace and YouTube roles.
Axe dudes get downloadable date
One mouse click and a sexy widget named MINDI moves right in and get friendly.
Telus launches virtual store complete with virtual saleswoman
You know your brand is solid when people are willing to pay for virtual editions. Montreal-based Telus is the second company to set up a virtual store in the 18+ virtual world/social networking site Second Life, in which 600,000 global users create virtual identities and conduct ‘second lives.’ Within one week of its late August opening, Telus had sold 100 virtual phones.
Right now, the phones are just able to help make avatars look important by enabling ‘busy’ modes to let other players know when they’re occupied in the real world. Users are also able to download ringtones. Telus has set up its own virtual saleswoman, Sparkle Dale, to sell phones and collect consumer feedback. Telus is currently trying to figure out how to facilitate a common user request: to somehow let virtual phone calls translate into real-world phone calls.
Coke rolls out global launch of coffee beverages in Toronto
The Coca-Cola Company is getting into the coffee business and it’s testing the waters in Canada’s lucrative $5.2 billion java market (including café and grocery store sales) with the September 22 launch of its new Far Coast and Chaqwa brands. The aim is to help Coke customers such as QSRs, gas stations and restaurants serve café-quality coffee, including espresso and cappuccinos, without the fancy equipment and specially trained baristas.
The Far Coast line targets more upscale clients like Windsor Arms and Yorkville’s trendy restaurant Flow, while Chaqwa is going after gas stations and movie theatres. The latter is already available at Silver City Richmond Hill and the Village Market in Port Credit.
The launch includes a Far Coast concept store in Toronto’s trendy Yorkville area that Coke honchos see as a valuable tool for gauging consumer feedback. ‘The concept store is really a marketing tool … it’s part of our full-learning plan,’ explains Silvio Annosantini, premium brewed beverages business development director, Coca-Cola Canada. While the café isn’t set to open until September 22, Rogers and Bravo will be broadcasting updates from the shop during the Toronto International Film Festival.
Outgames creative too out there for TV
Yes. Those stick people are doing what you think they’re doing. For its AIDS awareness group clients – Action Séro Zéro and COCQ-Sida (la Coalition des organismes communautaires québécois de lutte contre le sida) – Montreal-based Marketel crafted a cheeky safe sex campaign to tie in with the city’s first Outgames. The event was sort of a gay Olympics that attracted more than 250,000 visitors from around the world in late July.
Saucy print executions, which ran in local papers and magazines as well as wild postings, featured phallic-looking sports equipment such as badminton birdies and baseball bats with the tag ‘Equipped for the Games?’ And a 30-second animated spot depicting two stick figures engaged in explicit sporty sexual relations, set against a condom-wrapper backdrop, ran on giant screens around the games. Posters featuring the sexy stick figures also ran in washrooms at gay bars and bathhouses.
‘Outrageous seems appropriate for an event like the Outgames,’ says Linda Dawe, senior copywriter at Marketel. ‘Our main concern was to really catch people’s attention.’ The creative team was careful to keep the campaign light to best fit the festive mood of the games. ‘We’re not trying to scare people, but the message is still pretty explicit without being heavy-handed,’ she says. ‘It’s not preachy or a downer.’ Dawe adds that her team sent storyboards of the sexy spot to RadioCanada asking if it would be interested in running it during their coverage of the Games. ‘They said ‘noooo thanks!’ she laughingly recalls.
ViTrue shows how to do CGM safely
Consumer generated ad mash-ups can be mighty scary for control-freak brand managers. But, like it or not, consumer generated media (CGM) ain’t going away. So why not facilitate it?
A new Atlanta-based company called ViTrue has set out to hook up advertisers with tools to encourage users to have fun with their brands. ViTrue has partnered with Sharkle.com, a free YouTube-ish video-sharing community with 100,000 registered users and one million unique visits per month. The company also has a partnership with Publicis Group’s media futures arm, Denuo, geared to getting Publicis clients into the CGM arena.
Vespa emerges for TIFF
The Vespa butterfly campaign has emerged from its cocoon, with a 30-second cinema incarnation set to hatch next month during the Toronto International Film Festival. It builds on the wild posting campaign that broke in late spring, featuring installations of six interpretations by artists from around the world of the Vespa as a butterfly.
‘It kind of emanated from this spring-has-sprung mentality,’ says Morey Chaplick, president of Toronto-based Canadian Scooter Corp. The spot features a dark cocoon that bursts into a psychedelic, colourful Vespa butterfly, set to groovy music. ‘We wanted to tap into this retro feel – Vespa is an icon of the sixties,’ says Glen Hunt, creative catalyst at Toronto-based Dentsu Canada.
Vespa is debuting the spot at TIFF to leverage its partnership with Toronto-based Tribute Entertainment Media Group, which will have a VIP lounge during the festival where celebs passing through will be asked to sign two Vespas to be auctioned off for charity.
Canada Post leverages its own prospecting tool for new multi-merchant catalogue
If you’ve been thinking about ramping up your marketing efforts by getting into catalogues, but are afraid of the cost and risk, you may want to pay attention to the multi-merchant catalogue Canada Post will be testing this fall. It will be about 24 pages and feature double-page-spreads from 10-15 merchants, ranging from home and garden to apparel to travel. The only confirmed merchant as of today is Ottawa-based kitchen accessories retailer Ashton Green.
One to Watch: HGTV and Food nets move from DIY formula to story-driven fare – and it’s working
Alliance Atlantis DIY darlings HGTV and the Food Network have recently undergone programming makeovers, mixing in more entertaining, character-driven shows like Designer Superstar Challenge and I Do…Let’s Eat, along with their traditional ‘practical/how-to’ fare. The change is leading to a shift in the nets’ media strategy from traditional TV, OOH and print spots to more guerrilla-type promos. So far, the bid to expand reach beyond the primary target of DIY Martha Stewart wannabes is working: according to Nielsen, this winter to date HGTV is tracking 43% ahead of last year (A25-54 average minute audience or AMA), while Food saw a record audience growth of 25% in fall 2005 versus fall 2004 (A25-54 AMA).
Budweiser flips out on Montreal métro
It’s the Budweiser party train! Well, not quite. But, during September and October, Montreal’s métro riders can check out a visual stunt crafted by Budweiser Quebec and BBDO Montreal, featuring a guy rocking out with his guitar.
Using old-fashioned flipbook techniques, 36 images of a dude in progressive stages of a guitar solo were affixed to all nine cars of a métro train on Montreal’s Green Line. So, as the train whizzes into each station, riders waiting on the platform can see the full illusion of the ‘performance.’ The photography was done by Montreal-based Martin Girard.
Butter for world peace
Messages of peace, tolerance, equality and freedom of expression from…butter? The latest campaign from the Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec, called ‘Le beurre prend position’ (‘Butter takes a stand’) centres on such lofty ideals, aiming to promote ‘food for thought.’
There are eight different executions, all in French, featuring butter-worthy items like croissants, potatoes and toast with statements like ‘Unite the Nations’ and ‘Equality.’ One execution depicts a decapitated muffin with the line ‘Against Violence.’
Much partners with P&G for new reality show
MuchMusic has turned its country-wide VJ search into a reality show – and Procter & Gamble is along for the ride as promo partner. MuchMusic VJ Search: the Series is slated to air in January 2006. CHUM director of marketing Susan Arthur says: ‘All aspects of the production will create unique opportunities for us to work together – from event marketing and product integration, right through to special features during the series finale.’
Arthur adds that there will be opps for other marketers to get involved on a smaller scale. The net decided to offer up an exclusive sponsorship in response to the common request Arthur hears from advertisers to really ‘own’ a CHUM property. The VJ Search is unique, so Arthur and her team brainstormed ways to make it bigger and thus more appealing to sponsors. ‘The logical next step was creating a reality show,’ she says. ‘This is the biggest thing I’ve done in my 15 years at CHUM.’
Showcase chauffeurs in premium fall TV lineup
From pushing boundaries to chauffeuring people home, the new Showcase campaign has it all. The lofty effort, called ‘Showcase at 10,’ drives home three messages: Showcase pushes boundaries; Showcase has premium, risqué shows; and, the shows are on nightly at 10 p.m. Most notably, Showcase is branding a fleet of five black Chrysler 300s, to be used as makeshift taxis to rush people home – for free – in time to catch Showcase’s 10 p.m. lineup. The cars will be equipped with TVs running promo reels for the fall lineup, which includes premium cable shows picked up from HBO and Showtime like Rescue Me, Weeds and The L Word.
‘The main objective is to get people to make an appointment at 10 p.m.,’ explains director of marketing Muriel Solomon. ‘We’re hoping people will talk about the fleet…and that radio stations will pick up on it.’
Taxi goes big for Nike
It’s a bird, it’s a plane – it’s a 50-ft.-tall Jarome Iginla hanging off a crane! This is just one of several ‘statement pieces’ Toronto-based ad shop Taxi did for the new Nike 45 campaign, which aims to drive traffic to nikehockey.ca and features hockey superstars Iginla and Markus Naslund. Other impressive media buys include a 150-ft.-tall billboard in Calgary, one of the biggest outdoor pieces in history and a floating billboard circling around Vancouver Harbour.
