Yellow Pages has launched another of its so-called “Local market attack” campaigns in its ongoing battle for consumer awareness. As part of the eight-week campaign, the company plans to bombard Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver with as many as 250 market-specific ads.
Running through July 12, the campaign is part of what Montreal-based director of brand and marketing communications André Leblanc described as a “short-term, high-impact” strategy.
“The idea is to go into market fast and furious, have a high-impact in the short-term and then pull out,” said Leblanc. “It’s a short-term domination to break through the clutter, get noticed and get an explosion in awareness and usage.”
In many cases, the ads drill down to neighbourhood or even street level. One Toronto ad, for example, reads: “Bloor West has 6 pet stores, 1 squirrel-filled park and lots of happy dogs.” Featuring Yellow Pages’ signature yellow and black colour scheme, the ads feature the tagline “Get the app that gets neighbourhoods.”
Ads will appear in high-profile locations in each market, including Montreal’s Berri-UQAM and McGill College metro stations and the Toronto Transit Commission’s Union and Eglinton stations, as well as Calgary’s LRT subway cars and the Vancouver SkyTrain.
Bus shelters, pillars and superboards will complement the transit advertising, while a digital component will include web banners, homepage takeovers and targeted mobile ads.
Yellow Pages first introduced the “Local market attack” strategy in the Greater Toronto Area in 2013, before expanding it to the same four markets last year.
The campaign, which features creative by Leo Burnett and media by Starcom MediaVest Group, is intended to demonstrate the efficacy of the Yellow Pages app – as well as the revamped YellowPages.ca – in finding goods and services offered by neighbourhood businesses.
Leblanc said previous iterations of the campaign have boosted downloads of the YP app between 100% and 200%, and global traffic on its platforms between 10-15%.
The campaign comes as Yellow Pages continues to morph from a business built around increasingly anachronistic print directories. More than 55% of its annual revenues – more than $450 million – are now derived from its digital products and related services.
Leblanc said the company is attempting to position itself as a leader in local digital search, specifically through its YP mobile app, which has been downloaded nearly 7 million times. The app is being updated next week with new neighbourhood-specific information designed to increase its “stickiness.”
In January, Yellow Pages adopted an “always-on” strategy that calls for a 52-week market presence comprised of a mix of radio, out-of-home and what Leblanc characterized as a “pretty significant layer” of digital advertising.
Leblanc said this strategy helps Yellow Pages maintain a minimum threshold of visibility, while splashy campaigns such as the “Local market attack” and “Shop the neighbourhood” help it “explode” into awareness.
