Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal has pointed its advertising account to Taxi Montreal, ending a pas de deux with LG2 that lasted three years
Taxi was chosen without a pitch by the non-profit ballet, which has an advertising budget of less than $500,000.
“I was really impressed with the work they did in rejuvenating established brands like Reitmans and Jergens,” says Anna Bedic, director of communications and marketing at Les Grands Ballets. That’s of particular importance given that the ballet is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, she says.
Taxi’s mandate is to reposition the brand via TV, print and posters, Internet, and cinema and direct mail.
The ballet had recently done a lot of its advertising work in-house due to budgetary constraints, but the budget has been realigned, which will allow Taxi to do much of the work, Bedic says.
The ballet currently has about 2,000 subscribers, the most loyal of which are in their 50s. The challenge will be to attract younger subscribers who consider the ballet even more old fashioned than orchestras or the opera, she says.
People are familiar with the ballet, but when asked if they’ve seen Les Grands recently, they tend to answer that they saw The Nutcracker. People don’t realize the ballet’s repertoire has expanded far beyond the classical, she says.
Taxi is currently working on a spring brochure and will follow suit with a major campaign for the 2007-2008 season.
