Telus showcases unlikely pairings in new Optik campaign

Not since Pride and Prejudice and Zombies have the undead and Elizabethan aristocracy made such a wonderful comedic pairing.

To promote its Western Canada-based cable service Optik, Telus and its agency The & Partnership have created a new mass-media campaign highlighting the frequently clunky and incongruous channel packages offered by its competitors, such as those combining hockey and fishing or history and horror.

The “You call the shots” campaign features TV, online video and banners, print and out-of-home. It follows a recent CRTC ruling that will enable cable customers to select their TV channels on an individual “pick-and-pay” basis going forward.

“We’re just trying to get ahead of the curve a little bit,” said James Sadler, deputy executive creative director with The & Partnership in Vancouver, which began working with Telus in September 2014.

The campaign is built around the insight that consumers are increasingly frustrated by being forced to take channels they don’t watch in order to access the ones they are genuinely interested in.

“If you want to buy MTV Canada [for example] you’ve got to buy Cottage Life Television, or if you want to buy history channels you have to get horror,” said Sadler.

Telus kicked off the campaign with a 30-second TV spot featuring a couple sitting together in their living room, surrounded by characters representing the various programming genres (an alien for sci-fi, a zombie for horror, a cop for crime etc.)

As the characters disrupt their daily life, the woman asks her husband “Gary, are we still paying for all these channels?” The man says no, and orders them all to leave the house, while the super “Still paying for channels you don’t watch?” appears, followed by a screen promoting the new Optik theme packs.

The TV spot is being supported by three online videos showing unlikely partners like DIY and crime and history and horror as they sit on a couch and bicker. Sadler said the online videos are inspired by actual “awkward pairings” offered by Optik’s competitors.

“It was just taking a look at what the competitors were doing and highlighting some of the flaws,” said Sadler. “It was identified early in the creative process that there are a lot of advantages that Optik has over its rivals.”

In one online spot, the Elizabethan queen talks about her empire boasting the finest artists and writers while bemoaning the fact she is stuck with a zombie named Carl. “His grunts are inexcusable, and he smells worse than the latrine,” she says with obvious distaste.

As the zombie shuffles off-screen, the queen notes that her empire has grown in both size and stature, before asking “and what hast thou done Carl?” The zombie responds by triumphantly lifting up his missing arm that he has found behind the couch.

Sadler describes the moment as an easter egg that references the original TV spot, which features Carl searching for something amid the cast of characters.

The media plan from Cossette will use online targeting in an attempt to woo people who subscribe to Optik’s competitors. “It’s definitely an acquisition play for sure,” said Sadler. The campaign runs through October.

While this isn’t The & Partnership’s first live-action work for Telus, the ads do retain the instantly recognizable “critters” iconography that has been a hallmark of the telecommunications company’s marketing for more than a decade. The critters, in this case a red panda (“very mischievous,” according to Sadler), are featured prominently in the campaign’s out-of-home elements.

“I think [the critters] will always have a role,” said Sadler, noting they possess “billions of dollars” in brand equity.

“We certainly won’t be moving away from them,” he said. “If anything we’ll be embracing them and really looking at how we should use them in the future.”