When Loblaw’s set out to reposition its President’s Choice (PC) brand to appeal to more food-savvy Canadians, “Crave more” was more than just a consumer-facing tagline – it was a wide-ranging philosophy applied to, among other things, its relationships with media vendors.
It was a really big budget, so that always gets my attention
Jack tomik, Rogers
Last spring, Canada’s largest grocery chain, through its agency ZenithOptimedia, issued an RFP to Canada’s largest media companies, inviting them to its Brampton headquarters to present ideas on how they might bring an internal mantra of “The new, the next, the never been done” to fruition.
The reward? A major piece of what is being described as the largest marketing campaign in Loblaw’s history.
“We carved out a significant chunk of our investment to say ‘Here’s how much money is up for grabs to whoever comes up with ‘The new, the next the never been done way’ of executing this campaign – a fresh and new way,” said Loblaws senior vice-president of marketing Uwe Stueckmann.
The process was determined over a series of high-level meetings attended by the top executives from each company, all carried out in what ZenithOptimedia president and CEO Frank Friedman characterized as a “very tight” timeline.
“We were able to push things through in a compact timeframe, and it all just lined up perfectly,” he said. “It was very stressful though, I can tell you that.”
While the “Crave More” launch is being supported by a traditional media buy using an array of media partners, Loblaw’s was keen to work with a single media partner to help bring the platform to life in unexpected ways.
Friedman described it as an “innovation driven” component, noting that the sheer size of the venture brought out the best in participating companies. “Having the line drawn in the sand, that… one partner could walk away with all of it, set up a thought process of ‘We’re going to go for this,’” he said.
“It was a really big budget, so that always gets my attention,” said Rogers’ chief sales officer Jack Tomik, perhaps only half-jokingly, when asked what attracted him to the program.
More seriously, Tomik said he was keen to work with Friedman, who he called a “very creative media guy,” and was enticed by the opportunity to take a lead role in the repositioning of one of Canada’s most revered brands. “It’s about as exciting as it gets in our business,” he said.
While all of the participating media companies “put a lot of effort” into developing unique approaches, Stueckmann said that Rogers stood apart because of the breadth of the integration opportunities and an impressive array of unique executions.
Tomik said that Rogers has responded to about 600 RFPs for integrated media campaigns – both large and small – in 2014, a roughly 35% increase over last year.
He won’t say how many the company has won, but noted that last year’s appointment of longtime sales executive Mitch Dent as head of its 60-person Client Solutions unit – which specializes in programs of this nature – has been instrumental in an improved success rate.
“It’s working like crazy,” said Tomik. “[Dent] has a great background and he understands how to put content together with advertising solutions [to create] interesting things.”
The Rogers component of “Crave More” launched Wednesday with what Stueckmann described as “Canada’s ultimate Twitter party,” with the Twitter handles of various Rogers properties all tweeting about food using the hashtag #PCdiscoveries (sample tweet from @BTEdmonton: “Along with @PresChoice we’re asking ‘Fill in the blank, I can’t go without_____in the AM?”). #PCdiscoveries was a trending topic in Canada on Wednesday morning.
The media activity will peak with the season premiere of Modern Family on City, when Loblaw’s takes over the first commercial break – approximately three-and-a-half minutes – with a mixture of traditional brand-sell spots and a 60-second content piece. Loblaw’s will tease the commercial break activity with lower third “snipes” during the sitcom’s first segment.
The content piece will tell the story of PC’s “New World EVOO Extra Virgin Olive Oil.” Focusing on the campaign mantra of “If you don’t search for more you’ll never find it,” it showcases the South American origins of the oil, which help distinguish it from traditional European-sourced olive oil.
Rogers will then feature a live cutaway to a Modern Family viewing party being held at its store in Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. The rest of the episode will feature additional PC-related activity.
Stueckmann called Wednesday’s launch the “gold standard” of the “Crave more” launch, and the embodiment of what Loblaw’s was seeking when it first issued the RFP.
“To me this whole integration describes how we crave more from a media partnership and expect people to bring us ‘The new, the next, the never been done,’” he told Marketing. “Zenith was very good at orchestrating the process, but I think Rogers really stepped up and brought us some unique combinations of things I think are going to be very special.”
While additional details of “Crave More” are still being kept under wraps (“They want to surprise the world, and so do we,” said Tomik), Stueckmann said that future iterations would include everything from Rogers’ radio stations to its various consumer magazines.
The PC chefs, for example, are currently working with the Chatelaine test kitchen to create recipes that will be featured in future issues of the magazine, while a series of special edition covers are also in the works. Other Rogers-owned consumer titles, including Today’s Parent and Maclean’s, will also feature President’s Choice related content.
“Literally all of our assets coast-to-coast are involved in some way, shape or form,” said Tomik. “This campaign is about as saturated in Canadian media as I’ve ever seen. It’s as big as anything that’s been marketed in this country for a very long time.”
Tomik said that campaigns of this nature demonstrate the capabilities of large integrated media companies promised when “convergence” was the buzzword at the start of the millennium.
“I think it was a great idea in 2000-2001, but consumers still had a bit more of an attention span then,” he said. “Now with mobile and digital and everything else, you really do have to use mobile and digital to get the message across.”
Stueckmann predicted that more media activity would be conducted using a single media partner. “We are certainly thinking about our media buying model,” he said. “This has been a bit of an eye-opening experience in terms of what’s possible if you change your media buying model. I would assume that brands that have significant investments in media would look at different ways of buying media in the future.”
Friedman said that it “definitely” something ZenithOptimedia is keen to continue, noting that similar initiatives in his native U.S. have generated “incredible results” for clients.
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