TD and Rogers Media are putting the power to determine TV programming into viewers’ hands.
A newly launched co-branded marketing program called “We Hear You” gives viewers the opportunity to vote to influence programming seen Thursday on conventional and specialty Rogers TV properties, including City and Sportsnet. The program was born from a competitive industry-wide RFP issued by Starcom, TD’s media agency of record in February. Rogers ultimately won out with the “We Hear You” concept.
The program, which launched May 27, is housed on a vanity URL set up by Rogers. “We Hear You” allows viewers to vote a week in advance on what they would like to see appear during particular segments of Breakfast Television (regionally specific to the five markets in which Rogers runs that show), what archived episode of How I Met Your Mother they’d like to watch during prime time and specific questions they want answered about pro athletes during Sportsnet Connected.
The program, for which there was no specific brandsell content provided by TD, was designed to play off of the bank’s ongoing “We Hear You” related communication strategy; giving consumers choice is an integral part of the strategy.
“When we looked at this it was trying to understand how TD interacts with their customers and how they listen,” says Rob Groen, director, marketing solutions, conventional television, at Rogers Media. “It’s also about giving them choices and providing choices. We started to hone in on the word choice and really that, slowly but surely, turned into giving our customers – our TV and digital audience – a choice. And that evolved into actually helping them direct the content on our stations and select programming.”
“We Hear You” also gave Rogers the opportunity to strengthen its relationships with two key clients.
“For us it’s solidifying and entrenching our relationship with our media partners,” says Groen.
The program is being promoted via broadcast with creative pieces produced in-house, including a 30-second co-branded spot that features both a City and Sportsnet version. On Thursdays, spots running during featured shows remind viewers about the program. Digital components in the promotional mix include co-branded ad impressions on targeted sites under the Rogers Media umbrella, and proprietary media supporting the overarching theme, all of which drives traffic to the online hub.
**This story was updated June 19**
