Prospective clients perceive all business law firms as very good, thorough and expensive, but Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is attempting to distinguish itself in a new print, digital and out-of-home campaign from Toronto agency Yield.
The English and French campaign, “The Direct Path” (“Droit au But”), uses type illustrations that underscore Osler’s commitment to providing a direct route to the appropriate legal solution. It is Yield’s first work for Osler since winning the assignment last spring.
One execution features an image of scissors made up of multiple uses of the word “pragmatism,” accompanied by the message “Cutting through the minutia and getting to the crux of the matter requires Pragmatism.”
The campaign is based on interviews with more than 40 companies of varying sizes, which found that they are seeking more direct access to legal expertise and not layers of lawyers in between.
“When in-house counsel wants to bring in a law firm, their fears are always about how the bills are going to add up and ‘Are they just going to send me a bunch of lawyers billing me all these hours?’” said Yield creative director Chris Torbay. “What they told us is that they want to talk to the right person, who’s going to very quickly frame things in a way that lets them see what they’re going to have to do and who’s going to do what.”
Torbay said the agency’s intention was to create a concept with “stopping power.” In an early meeting, the agency spread out all of the advertising for Canada’s business law firms and encountered what he called a “sea” of stock photography and similarly themed ads.
Running through the rest of the year, “The Direct Path” campaign targets potential clients in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, as well as selected international markets. The ads will appear as online banners, in newspapers (The Globe and Mail, La Presse) and magazines. Ads are also appearing in Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal.
Select ads also use QR codes to drive home the campaign’s theme of direct connection. “The whole campaign is about giving [customers] direct access, and that’s what the QR code does,” said Torbay. “If you read the ad and want to find out more about what we mean, it streamlines the way you get that done.”
Media planning and buying for the campaign was overseen by Aegis Media Canada.
