Astral Media wants to reach media people, or as they call them “creatives with a plan” in its most recent campaign.
Four videos in the “Advertising” section of its website poke fun of common perceptions of creatives and media professionals. In one titled “The Media Donna,” a planner goes ballistic because, despite the brilliant plan he just presented, a client insists on buying quarter page ads in newspapers. In another, a young planner presents his portfolio and a greatly impressed interviewer asks him why he has never noticed his campaigns before, despite its nice segmentation. The reply: “It was very well executed, but honestly, the creative, it sucked.”
The media donna from Astral on Vimeo.
“We played on general stereotypes that everyone knows,” explains Derev Antikacioglu, director, branding and corporate marketing at Astral. “We were hoping creatives would get the joke and laugh with us, and we succeeded. A lot of them gave me positive feedback. The goal is neither to flatter media people by taking shots at creatives nor to say that there is no more room for the creative, but rather that everyone has to work together.”
This isn’t the first campaign Astral specifically tailored to media buyers and planners. In 2007, following the acquisition of Standard Radio, it highlighted its enriched media offering with the campaign “The consumers you want. All under one roof.” Two years ago, Astral targeted the industry with fake, personalized videos singing the praises of media strategists.
“Last year, we revamped our brand image to make it more playful, colourful and imaginative,” said Antikacioglu of the company’s May 2010 rebranding. “This campaign is in the same vein. When you want to be different, when you need to push your limits, we want you to think of us as a partner.”
Astral is pushing its marketing offensive through industry publications and websites, including MarketingMag.ca and Marketing‘s Mar. 14 print issue, over which a cover wrap featured Chris Staples, Rethink’s co-founder, announcing that he is becoming a media planner.
Between March 7-18, the campaign’s four videos were viewed 9,500 times, and the average time spent on the microsite was 10 minutes.
Creative agency BOS executed the campaign.
