Grand & Toy is in the midst of a two-pronged marketing campaign that uses a unified creative platform to speak to both large and small businesses.
Last fall, the retailer transformed five of its Toronto locations into “Business Centres,” continuing a national program that launched in 2008. The redesigned locations offer small businesses resources such as interior design counsel, human resources management, as well as print and design centres for business cards, flyers and catalogues.
For the first time, Grand & Toy is promoting the five locations, locally, with print running in the Toronto Star, the newspaper’s website, and TSAs in neighbourhoods where there tends to be groups of small businesses.
At the same time, Grand & Toy is also speaking to larger businesses and senior executives through ads in the Globe and Mail, TheGlobeAndMail.com, and signage at Toronto Pearson and Billy Bishop Toronto City airports.
Both sets of ads are built on the same creative platform, and use the same visual identity.
It was important to remain consistent, said Phil Sylver, creative director at Extreme Group in Toronto, the agency behind the campaign. “Ultimately, it’s to build in Canadian business people’s mind that Grand & Toy is able to do so much for you,” he said.
The creative is light on copy and leverages the retailer’s logo and ampersand to connect a sentence together.
“We thought it was really important not just to tell people we have these new services but to tell people it’s coming from a brand that has moved away from the spotlight of advertising for a while,” he said.
Grand & Toy embarked on its brand repositioning over four years ago, and last fall opened three Business Centres in Vancouver.
According to Grand & Toy, the small to mid-sized business segment makes up 98% of all business in Canada.
Over the next year, the company will continue its national roll‐out in support of other business initiatives.
