TVO, Ontario’s pubic television broadcaster, is publishing a short story by author Tish Cohen on Twitter to promote its documentary series Empire of the Word.
Leo Burnett, TVO’s new agency of record, hit upon the idea of publishing via Twitter after seeing that the series examines issues of literacy in the technological age.
“The show asks a question about literacy: are we at the end of the written word?” said David Buckspan, group account director at Leo Burnett in Toronto. “If everyone [communicates] on Facebook and Twitter, is that literacy? Is 140 characters reading and writing?”
Buckspan said his agency merged what could be seen as a “high brow” subject with a very accessible media concept to broaden the appeal of the topic.
Cohen, author of Town House and Little Black Lies, wrote a new story especially for the project. Called Littleman, it will be released in 140-character bursts at Twitter.com/TVO over the next two weeks. It launched Wednesday with the tweet “Littleman watched, blinking, as the plow lumbered and crashed along Albany Avenue.”
Appearing between lines of plot will be questions relating to Empire of the Word’s subject matter. The first appeared just before 2 p.m.: “Question of the day: Do you think we’re at the end of the written word?”
Leo Burnett won the TVO account in April, and since October has been expanding the channel’s brand by promoting a variety of programs across television, transit and out-of-home.
“People think of TVO as either safe for kids, educational, or intellectual, very high brow,” Buckspan said. “There’s this whole middle ground that’s much more accessible to a wide audience, the boomer audience. There’s lots of very inspirational, engaging, thought-provoking programing that lots of people don’t know about.”
The agency produced a television and online video ad designed to show what Buckspan calls the station’s “breadth and depth.” It plays off the station’s “Makes you think” positioning, showing images that are intended to make viewers “laugh,” feel “grossed-out” and “applaud.”
Leo Burnett has also used events and stunts since launching the campaign. To support a documentary on artist Keith Haring, the agency placed Haring-inspired art objects on Toronto streets beside signs that asked “Can art make you think about the world around you?”
Its “water cooler” event took a similar route, using the familiar office furniture as media to ask questions such as “Is censorship ever justified?” and “Can singing produce more than pretty music?”
