For its fall ads, the Toronto Star is telling newspaper readers it’s “Better. Every day” with a new campaign from Wild Mouse.
The campaign launched yesterday with two billboard executions placed around the Greater Toronto Area. One shows a moviegoer in a theatre with a bag of popcorn over his head. Above him is the line “Should’ve read our review.” The second shows a man fallen into a massive pothole with the line “This is a job for the Fixer,” a reference to the newspaper’s urban columnist Jack Lakey.
“Essentially, the fall campaign is all about readership,” said Sandy MacLeod, vice-president, consumer marketing at the Star. “It’s very much focused towards consumers.”
To get more readers to pick up the paper and spend more time with it, the outdoor ads will be followed by a strong in-paper and direct-mail campaign. Radio, television and online ads will follow throughout September, each relying on the “Better. Every day” tag line.
The Star has handled the bulk of its ad campaign’s in-house since 2007 under the direction of Lorne Silver, director of creative marketing.
“We were looking for some external thought on the creative aspect,” MacLeod said. “We’re still managing the vast majority of this campaign internally, as far as logistics and booking media goes.”
Wild Mouse launched last summer with the Canadian Newspaper Association as its first client. Its portfolio now includes projects for Blue Mountain ski resort and Kitchen Stuff Plus, among others.
The Toronto Star is currently the agency’s largest client in terms of billing, according to John Farquhar, Wild Mouse president and former creative director at GJP Advertising in Toronto.
“This is big news for me,” Farquhar said. “The Toronto Star] worked with [Lowe Roche], with DraftFCB, so they’ve worked with really big agencies. So for me this is a big vote of confidence that a major company and brand like TorStar decided to go with us.”
The campaign was produced on a project basis, but MacLeod said he is considering Wild Mouse for upcoming classified and B2B campaigns.
Media was handled by Genesis Vizeum, the paper’s media agency of record.
