Astral Media has taken the concept of the advertising roadblock up a notch with a new advertising platform called The Works.
In development for the past four months, The Works enables advertisers to simultaneously commandeer advertising inventory on Astral’s television, radio, digital out-of-home and internet properties in Quebec four times a day (7:58 a.m., 11:58 a.m., 4:58 p.m. and 9:58 p.m.) for one week. The ads will also be shown in rotation throughout the week.
Built as a one-week package, The Works places an emphasis on Montreal and incorporates 10 TV channels, 24 radio stations, 13 digital out-of-home boards and 18 websites.
Mary Lepage, director of Astral’s integrated sales division, Astral Mix, said that internal research indicates The Works would enable advertisers to reach more than 85% of all French-speaking Quebecers 25-54 and more than 90% of all those in the Montreal French market each week.
“It’s an exceptional offer whereby we expose the majority of Quebecers to a client’s brand or message simultaneously across four different mediums,” said Lepage. “Four times a day, their message is virtually impossible to circumvent–it creates a lot of impact.”
Astral called The Works an “unprecedented” media proposition. “We introduced it because we have this ability to roadblock virtually all Quebecers across all of our platforms,” said Lepage. “If an advertiser has an important launch, or wants to kick off a particular season, it’s the perfect opportunity. We can really generate incredible reach in a short amount of time.”
No advertisers have signed on for The Works, but Lepage said that initial sales presentations have generated “a lot of interest.” The goal, she said, was to get the package into market for fall since it is a key advertising period.
“We’re hoping we’ll have some really good positive response within the next week as we take this around,” she said.
While Montreal has the optimal blend of media assets for The Works (Astral’s TV assets in English Canada are largely limited to commercial-free channels such as Family and The Movie Network), Lepage said the company’s asset base could enable it to offer an abridged version of The Works across its radio, out-of-home and digital assets in key English-speaking markets such as Toronto and Vancouver. “If the client demand was out there, we’d certainly step up for that,” she said.
Lepage wouldn’t disclose pricing on the advertising packages, but told Marketing it is not a premium-priced offering.
“I think the impact it’s going to generate is going to show incredible results,” she said.
