Toronto agency Elemental is familiarizing itself with the brand DNA of the Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI) after being tapped to oversee the institution’s advertising. Elemental beat out three other undisclosed agencies for the assignment.
The agency is set to unveil a “pilot project” for the OGI in September that will include print and online media. The Toronto-centric public awareness campaign—the OGI’s first—will focus on the importance of genomics research and how it affects leading public policy issues such as health, food and agriculture and the environment.
“Elemental seemed to be the most creative, a little bit edgy,” said OGI president and CEO Dr. Mark Poznansky via telephone from a genomics conference in Washington, D.C. that attracted more than 22,000 people. “They came up with a very bright idea that we can pilot for a relatively small amount of money. It’s easy to come up with creative ideas, but they’re not always straightforward in terms of how you [implement] them.
“Their creative people are terrific and their business development people are unbelievable,” he added.
Established in 2000, the OGI is a quasi-governmental organization funded by Genome Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. The organization’s goal is to be an advocate for what Poznansky called the “life sciences industry” in Ontario.
According to Poznansky, about 12% of all global food production today is a result of bio-technology (“You can’t buy soy or cotton that has not been genetically modified,” he said), while genomics also has considerable implications for other public policy areas such as health and the environment.
He said approximately 85% of the world’s bio-mass—which has been estimated at 560 billion tonnes—is comprised of microbes, which work in “unbelievable ways” to benefit the environment.
“We believe that genomics is going to drive almost everything we do in health, in food and agriculture and the environment,” said Poznansky. “But if I ask a lawyer or financial person what it is, they won’t have a clue, where if I ask them about the oil or gas industry they’ll be able to ramble on for hours.
“We think that’s an unacceptable situation and so this is a pilot to see if we can start explaining genomics.”
If the Toronto pilot project is successful, Poznansky said the OGI would like to roll it out into additional markets as early as spring 2012.
