The Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI) is taking the fight to some of humankind’s deadliest enemies in its first-ever consumer marketing campaign.
Using a loose theme of “Fighting the world’s worst enemies,” the new campaign from Toronto agency Elemental is intended to highlight how genomics is tackling a diverse range of problems affecting the human race, ranging from disease and environmental disasters to hunger.
The campaign employs wild postings with QR codes for mobile integration, street teams, online banners and print ads in the free commuter daily Metro to drive to a dedicated web site, WhyGenomics.ca, where visitors can learn about the applications of genomics.
Each of the ads transforms a petri dish into a battleground, depicting genomics doing battle with a “monster-ized” representation of an oil spill or deadly cancer cell.
The web site is divided into three sections, Cancer & Disease, Environmental Disasters and World Hunger, each outlining how genomics is being applied to solve that particular problem.
Brent Wardrop, principal and creative director for Elemental in Toronto, said that the campaign is aimed at a broad demographic of adults 25-55 with a post-secondary education. The campaign broke last week and is running throughout downtown Toronto.
“The idea is to show the efficacy of this path of communication and hopefully take it wider,” said Wardrop.
Elemental beat out two other shortlisted agencies for the OGI assignment earlier this summer. Wardrop characterized his agency’s submission to the review as the “most in your face” creative.
“The reason we did that is because it’s science, and by virtue of it being science, at least half of our population isn’t interested,” he said. “To get their attention it has to compel them to want to read it.”
