TVO has launched a comprehensive marketing campaign aimed at making more Ontarians aware of its extensive non-broadcast resources and ongoing commitment to education.
The new “TVOh” campaign celebrates the joy of learning and what vice-president of strategy, marketing and communications Andrew Steele called the “penny dropping moment” when someone first comes to a realization or grasps a concept or idea.
“Every parent has seen that look on their child’s face when they learn something new; everybody has experienced it in university or when they learned how to fix a car,” said Steele of the creative concept, which was developed by Toronto agency Cleansheet Communications.
The campaign broke March 1 and is running in 62 markets across the province. It includes 15-second pre-roll ads on YouTube, a 30-second cinema ad, and out-of-home advertising including billboards, TSAs and Go Transit advertising.
Additional cinema backlit ads are promoting specific TVO properties, while a series of out-of-home executions all feature children making an “Oh” face. Banner and slider ads are also running on TVO.org, TVO’s social media media channels and the TV channel. All of the ads feature the positioning statement “Never stop learning.”
The media plan by PHD Canada is primarily targeting 35-55 year-old parents, said Steele. “It’s a time-starved group and getting in front of them is tough, so you want to go where they are and not make them find you,” he said.
The 30-second cinema spot features slow-motion footage of people of varying ages with their eyes wide and mouth in an “O” shape, while a voiceover claims “Oh stands for revelation, oh stands for realization, and inspiration too. Oh says we’ve met with wonder, amazement, even ahh. For wherever there is oh, there is TVO.”
Steele said the campaign objective is to make Ontarians aware of the extensive suite of TVO services.
Including TVO and TVO.org, the organization currently operates nine products including Homework Help, an online math tutoring platform for students in Grades 7-10; the Independent Learning Centre, Ontario’s largest high school with 20,000 students; online teacher resource TeachOntario (currently used by 3,200 teachers) and mPower, an in-classroom tool to help students with math that is currently in beta and will launch province-wide in September.
“It’s about tying our brand to learning and re-introducing some of those products that [consumers] don’t really remember and tie to us,” said Steele. “We want to be the province’s partner for learning.”
He said success for the campaign would be Ontarians associating the organization with learning, and increased awareness of its array of non-broadcast properties.
Steele acknowledged many people still regard the service primarily as a broadcaster, but said the mass reach provided by its TV channel can be instrumental in telling the brand story. “You can’t compete with 3 million viewers with a product that’s got 20,000 students enrolled,” he said. “But, the great thing is we can use the broadcaster to tell that story.”
Steele said TVO is currently about halfway through a five-year strategic plan aimed at further establishing its non-broadcast entities. “This is another step in that process,” he said.
