Shaw Media has partnered with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), Leo Burnett and Yellow Pages Group (YPG) to create a custom advertising unit appearing in top shows on its lifestyle channels HGTV and Food Network Canada.
The program stems from what Shaw Media’s vice-president of national sales Greg McLelland called a “close strategic relationship” with SMG, with the agency approaching the media company about a creative solution to promote YPG’s mobile app.
In development for about two months, the customized ad solution consists of an overlay related to the on-screen content that appears across the bottom third of the screen for 10 seconds.
A viewer watching a segment on hot wings during Food Network’s Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, for example, would see a message urging them to use the YPG app to find the nearest local business specializing in wings.
“It’s a very elegant and simple solution from a viewer perspective, which is exactly what we were looking for,” said McLelland. “It sounds pretty generic, but if you’re viewing it across the country, it’s pretty contextual to your exact neighbourhood.”
The ad unit appears once during a 30-minute show and twice during a 60-minute show. The program concludes in mid-September.
Participating programs include Food Network’s Chopped, You Gotta Eat Here and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and the HGTV programs Holmes Inspection, Holmes on Holmes, Best of Holmes, Disaster Decks and Reno Raiders.
The advertising solution was created by Shaw’s Marketing Ventures Group, a business unit dedicated to creating customized advertising solutions that assembles more than 300 such campaigns a year and currently drives between 6%-7% of Shaw’s total broadcast sales.
“We take a lot pride in the unique marketing solutions they come up with,” said McLelland. “That group is extremely creative. Nothing is ever boiler-plated. [It] goes back to business basics, what the client needs, what creative tools we have in our arsenal and then putting them together for a unique approach.”
McLelland wouldn’t divulge a price tag for the venture, but described it as a “tactical product” that offered YPG a one-of-a-kind solution. “Getting creative thinking aligned with business thinking in a unique manner is always difficult, and it’s one of the things we pride ourselves on,” he said.
