Women make most household purchasing decisions, controlling and spending most of the disposable income available in Canadian homes. So why do so many marketing efforts border on insulting (impeccably kempt new moms or smiling, subservient wives for starters)?
Talk to women on their level and gain their trust – and budgets. Marketing’s first “Marketing to Women” is a half-day of insightful strategy by leading women marketers. Discover how they connect with an empowered demographic, plus hear their front-line stories of being a woman marketer.
In advance of Wednesday’s conference, Marketing reached out to some of our speakers and panelists to get their take on the current marketplace.
We asked “What advertising that targets women has caught your eye recently?”
“Last week the best campaign in many a moon aimed squarely at women won its umpteenth award (this time the top Grandy prize at the Andy Awards in New York). The fun, wildly innovative Old Spice ‘Responses’ did everything right. Thanks to Weiden + Kennedy, I do NOT think of Grandpa’s cologne when I smell the Old Spice I bought my man. He smells like Isaiah Mustafa instead. The agency pulled off shooting 186 personalized YouTube videos in a single day to respond to fan comments about their campaign . A miracle of writing, performance and getting around jittery lawyers. 
Old Spice manages to entertain and fan fantasies without crossing any lines, and brought an outdated, irrelevant brand back from the dead. Brilliant.” – Nancy Vonk, co-chief creative officer of Ogilvy Toronto
“An ad that caught my eye recently as being very impressive is Toyota’s “Ideas for good campaign” The ad was in In Style magazine, so clearly
targeted to women, and talked to women in what I thought was a very respectful way. The ad is not overt that it is targeted to women, the creative positioning is “how would you use our technology to make a better world” on one page, and on the opposing page, is a response “Wake Forest is using Toyota’s injury simulation software to find ways to make football helmets” and it is a woman’s signature underneath. Just very undertated and respectful of women as car buyers and acknowledging that Toyota wants to use their technology for things that women care about.” – Brenda Woods, head of marketing for Visa in Canada
“Thinking of categories such as health and beauty, household products and mom-related stuff, very few ads even come to mind. Very few resonate with me. One that I can recall as positive is Swiffer. I think they do a good job of taking a low-interest category and breaking through with their messages. The TV spots are humorous and they don’t take the category seriously.” – Gina Banks, senior vice-president, managing director, M2 Universal
For more on the Marketing to Women conference, click here.
For more from our Marketing to Women web package, click here.
