The LCBO is demonstrating to consumers what its clerks go through when a young person walks up to the register.
Partnering with its agency of record, Leo Burnett, the organization has created a game that allows consumers to guess the ages of young Ontarians as part of a year-long carding campaign
Taleen Yazejian, acting marketing manager at the LCBO, said the goal is to demonstrate how difficult it can be to guess a person’s age.
“It’s one of the most challenging things LCBO employees have to face day in and day out,” Yazejian said. “Sometimes people can get aggressive…we wanted to put this out there so everyone understands why we’re asking.”
Last year the LCBO asked 13.5 million people for ID. Of those, half a million turned out to be underage, said David Buckspan, the Leo Burnett group account director who works on LCBO.
Carding is a constant part of the organization’s retail business, but it can also be a source of contention for customers. With the new game, the LCBO is attempting to educate consumers about the challenges of identifying age and the need for carding.
“There’s this big window where [in-store employees are] always asking [for ID]. For lots of people in that window, it’s a bit of an annoyance,” Buckspan explains. “The truth is – and this is the insight – there’s no other reliable way to ensure customers are of legal drinking age, unless you’re carded.”
The Card or Not initiative started as a training program, but Leo Burnett suggested the module be re-purposed as a game for the public. The organization released the game earlier this year, then tweaked it to add new elements like the ability to share your score on social media. It re-launched on Sept. 17 to coincide with the university back-to-school season.
In the past, much of the LCBO’s communications about carding has been serious. With the Card or Not game, Yazejian said the goal was to create something fun and engaging that consumers would want to spend time with.
The game is being supported by in-store signage and digital ads on a variety of sites including Bell Media, MSN, AOL and Postmedia properties as well as a print ad in the LCBO’s Food & Drink magazine. For this leg of the year-long campaign, PHD handled the media buy, which includes OOH on campuses and ads on Twitter and Facebook. (ZenithOptimedia handled the buy for earlier phases of the effort.)
The final phase of the LCBO’s carding campaign is scheduled for the holiday season and will likewise focus on digital.
