While phrases like “breaks through the clutter” and “takes it to the next level” are often used to describe the success of a campaign, the one word marketers use most often when describing programs from Starcom Media- Vest Group is innovative.
“They’ve brought us a good mix of a balanced media plan and creative elements that are somewhat unique and leading edge,” says Dino Bianco, president, Kraft Canada Inc.
Over the last year, the Publicis-owned media operation has taken unconventional approaches to traditional media, pleasing clients and impressing awards show judges along the way.
“You always have to push yourself beyond what you think you can deliver, and always raise the bar, or you can never get over it,” says Lauren Richards, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group.
For Kraft’s hot beverage maker Tassimo and P&G’s Swiffer, Starcom negotiated deals to incorporate the brands into the editorial environment in an effort to engage consumers.
Unlike most Kraft brands, Tassimo is still in its infancy, says Bianco. So the challenge was to build household penetration quickly. Running in Transcontinental Media’s Style at Home magazine, the execution consisted of a full-page ad for the Tassimo brewer–a machine that makes single servings of hot beverages like coffee, tea and cappuccino–and a transparent plastic overlay featuring a smaller image of the machine and the words “All this kitchen needs is a countertop café.” The overlay sat atop an editorial page featuring a kitchen counter, giving the appearance that the Tassimo machine is part of the kitchen.
“It really starts to bring to life how important and attractive the machine could be for consumers and how it would look in their own kitchens, and I thought that was pretty innovative,” says Bianco.
The ad was part of a print campaign that also included customized advertorials in eight other publications, including Toronto Life, Coup de Pouce and Canadian House & Home.
It took dozens of meetings over several months to convince the hesitant publisher and senior editors to accept the step over the church-state divide, but it clearly paid off for Kraft. After the ad appeared last fall, Tassimo sales jumped up 30% and fi nished up 18% year over year.
The agency applied what it learned on the Tassimo project to a Torontofocused Swiffer program that zeroed in on Canada’s burgeoning condo market. The March issue of Canadian House & Home included a full-page picture within an editorial feature showing a set of muddy boot prints leading into the revamped room. When readers turned the page, they encountered the same image–except the prints are gone and the Swiffer is leaning against the countertop. The accompanying text read “Swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning.” In another execution of the campaign, a picture of the Swiffer duster on the back page appeared to be cleaning away words from a column running on the cover of free commuter daily Metro.
Trevor Thrun, manager of P&G’s homecare division, says the program helped the brand meet all of its business objectives, and maintain its place as the number-one product in the quick-clean category.
“ SMG has done a great job understanding our brand strategy, what our objectives are and then looking for creative ways to bring to life some of our executions,” he says. “They’ve really come to the table for us in terms of innovative media executions.”
The Metro execution won a Gold at September’s Creative Media Awards in New York, where Starcom was the only Canadian agency to even make the prestigious short list, doing so four times.
“Readers read editorial at a far greater rate than they do the advertising.
Any further connectivity we can have with the content of the magazine is a bonus for our advertisers,” says Richards.
The media agency’s innovative ways have attracted new business, adding 16 accounts in as many months . Among them Globalive, Jim Beam, University of Toronto and Royal Sun Alliance.
Perhaps the most notable however, is the TD Bank Financial Group account; the bank spent about $45 million on media in 2008. After a lengthy review process, Starcom was awarded the business mid-July, replacing The Media Company, which handled the business for 26 years.
In a year where the recession ate away at most marketing budgets, new business helped boost Starcom’s revenues by an amazing 32% .
But beyond revenue growth, SMG exceeded other key objectives this year, including adding new senior-level talent. The agency ramped up its management team with key hires including former OMD Canada managing director Anne Myers; Alex Panousis SVP, group strategy director; and Christine Saunders, SVP, group strategy director.
“When you get the right people who are behind the right vision and have the right attitude that they can take no prisoners, everything else can start to fall into place,” says Richards. “We’ve just scratched the surface of what we can do, and with that hopefully will come attention and clients understanding that there is a different kind of media company for them when they’re looking at the effectiveness of communication versus the cheapness of eyeballs.”
