Telus is telling a story of the hippopotamus and the hare in one of two national TV ads that launched this week.
The 30-second ad promotes Telus’ mobile network by contrasting a hippo and a rabbit. In this case, Telus’ familiar hippo mascot is faster than the rabbit to show the network’s size and speed.
The TV commercial uses repurposed footage from an DDB-created ad that first aired Christmas 2005 that featured Hazina the hippo. Telus brought it back last Christmas because the animal was a favourite among consumers.
“We thought we should continue with the hippo’ [because of consumer likability] but we wanted to add the speed factor,” said Anne-Marie Laberge, vice-president of marketing communications, of the new ads. “We thought this was a hilarious idea.”
A second television commercial shows two hippos swimming in what appears to be a pool to the song “Splish Splash” by Mina Mazzini. But it’s soon revealed they’re actually wading within the screen of a Motorola Milestone handset. “We wanted to bring the screen to life,” said Laberge. (The two hippos in this spot are Ghost and Polita, Hazina’s brother and mother, respectively.)
The spots are running until June on conventional and specialty channels, and can also be viewed on Telus’ YouTube channel.
Media Experts handled the buy.
The TV commercials are part of a larger effort developed by Telus’ lead creative agency Taxi that includes print, inserts, online, radio, and out-of-home.
Next month Telus will launch a “Hippo Hunt” that has customers searching for the creature across various social media sites.
