CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Regional ad agencies usually resent being forced to handle out-of-the-way project work while bigger-market shops scoop up all the agency-of-record glory, but a coalition of agencies in Montreal is going to unusual lengths to do just that. "Being a regional market is no longer a pain in the ass," said Sebastien Faure, president of agency BleuBlancRouge. "Now it's an opportunity."
Here's a follow-up to my previous post about the YUL-Lab; A view from YYZ.
This item in today's AdAge essentially outlines what the 'lab' is all about: a living, breathing, marketing laboratory based on the rationale that Quebec's relative cultural isolation -- its language barrier prevents much outside media from seeping in, and vice versa -- makes it an ideal place for U.S.-based marketers to experiment with new ideas and approaches before rolling them out to wider audiences.
Glad to see the story seems to have evolved in the past few months. The lab seems to now be about Montreal as a small market where marketers can experiment rather than some kind of microcosm of North America that can act as a predictive test market.
This blog is almost two years old, has 238 posts, had 19314 lifetime
pageviews and a fair amount of comments.
The post that generated the most visits?
A post entitled ‘Playing computer games in the nude.’ The
referring site most often responsible for taking visitors to this post was Google Images.
Either my other posts are not as arousing and won't ignite conversations or I should somehow
embed the word ‘nude’ in each title.
-----
Talking about limited conversations, there's an interesting admission by Harry Rosen's Sandra Kennedy in the Globe and Mail today. Remember the 'new confidence' campaign for the retailer featuring, among others, Robert Deluce and Rob Guenette? It seems only about 1,000 people had visited the blog by the end of the campaign. I guess the word 'nude' didn't fit the strategy.
I was introduced recently to DRAFTFCB’s litmus test for
great work: 6.5 Seconds That Matter.
Consumers give marketers 6.5 seconds to
engage them. According to DRAFT FCB’s research with over 1,000 consumers, they
will give you an average of only 6.5 seconds ‘to lean into and engage with a
brand message. It’s a brief window of opportunity, and we may not get a second
chance, so we have to make it count.’
I’m not challenging this research-based theory but I sure
hope it’s not going to add to the bite size communications world we now live
in. I would have Twittered this but I needed more than 6.5 seconds and 140
characters to make the point.
Details – a Steelcase
company – offers what it calls a Walkstation. It’s an electric, height
adjustable work station attached to a commercial grade treadmill with a maximum
speed of 2 miles per hour. It is designed to allow office workers to burn up to
100 calories per hour without leaving their computer screens.
Quebeckers and exercise equipment
Quebeckers are significantly less likely to own exercise
equipment than Canadians in the ROC. According to PMB 2009 data, 26.1% of
Canadians in the ROC own exercise equipment compared to 14.3% of
French-speaking residents of Québec.
I should probably add that ‘owning’ and ‘using’ exercise
equipment isn’t the same.
For more on Quebeckers’ approach to healthy living, see this
previous post.
Charles, The Prince of Whales, and his wife Camilla, The
Duchess of Cornwall, are visiting. So here’s a post about the royals.
Royal Warrants – the ultimate brand endorsement
In 1841, Carr’s Table Water Crackers were granted Queen
Victoria’s Royal Warrant, an award that has been granted to Carr’s by British
royalty continuously since that time. Carr’s have been on the shelves of
grocery stores in Québec for many years with the Royal Warrant prominently
displayed on its packaging. I have to say I had never paid much attention to it
but it’s obviously a prestigious mark and a sign that the product’s quality
meets the Royals’ high standard.
If you care to learn more about Royal Warrants, there’s a
well-researched article in brandchannel. Here’s an excerpt:
The warrants have existed for over a hundred years. And
unlike traditional celebrity endorsements, brands that are warrant holders are
associated less with the Queen or other royalty to which the crests belong
(there are four royal warrants belonging to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh,
the Prince of Wales and the now deceased Queen Mum) but to the traditional way
of life and luxury of the British Royal household. Consequently, Royal Warrants
are an unfaltering sign of prestige and quality.
“People apply for the warrant because it is a mark of
excellence," said Pippa Dutton of the Royal Warrants association.
"It's very helpful for trade because people say, well if the Queen shops
there, then it must be good. It's very good for trade abroad.”
Do Quebeckers care about what brands the Queen likes?
It’s hard to say.
The same brandchannel article quotes Peter Fisk, Group
Managing Director of Brand Finance. He believes a royal connection isn't always
a positive endorsement. Fisk says that, compared with other celebrity brands,
it is much harder for royal brands to attract consumers for the following
reasons:
Celebrities gain their attributes through achievement and
behavior; royalty mainly through position.
Consumers seek brands that match them or their aspirations.
Therefore they can identify with celebrities better than they can identify with
royalty.
As you would expect, Quebeckers aren’t as fond of the Royals
as Canadians in the rest of the country.
Survey results released last week by Ipsos Reid reveal that
Quebeckers are significantly more likely to believe that Canada’s head of state
should live in Canada and that when Queen Elizabeth’s reign ends, Canada should
end its formal ties to the British monarchy. They’re also more likely to
believe that Canada’s head of state should be the Governor General, not the
Queen.
And they are more likely to agree with the statement ‘the
Queen and the Royal Family should not have any formal role in Canadian society,
the royal are simply celebrities and nothing more’.
Which leads me to conclude that the real celebrity endorser
here should be Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean. There are plenty of Canadian products
waiting for her warrant.
Top 2 box agreement with the statement (Ipsos Reid survey
for Canwest News Service and Global Television, October 31, 2009)
If you’ve had to eat in a typical US airport in between
flights, you’ve seen the rows of quick service restaurant counters and
witnessed what repeated indulgence at some of these establishments will do to
your waist size.
Now there’s a web based tool designed to help you chose your
meal from your favourite restaurant. Called Fatburgr, the site and iPhone
application act as a repository of nutrition information for ‘all your
favorite restaurants’.
The name Fatburgr and some of the headlines on the website
give you an idea of who’s targeted here... Find Your Food, Jiggle Less.
And the portrayal of the typical restaurant patron leaves no
doubt.
Quebeckers and restaurant types
Here is where French-speaking Quebeckers say they’ve eaten
up to 4 times in the past month according to PMB 2009 (and the comparison with
the restaurant habits of Canadians in the ROC). You can see the 'St-Hubert effect'...
The news that Mr. Sub fired its advertising agency over a
controversial TV spot surprised many in our industry.According to Marketing Magazine, the sandwich chain was accused of promoting homophobia. The
“not everyone likes surprises” advertising broke in late September with three
humorous spots, two for TV and one online, based on the insight that customers
know what to expect when they dine at Mr. Sub. It was the online execution,
originally scheduled for a TV run next year, that became the subject of a
letter/e-mail writing campaign by the CAW (Canadian Auto Workers). The ad
showed a family sitting around the dining room table when the father cheerfully
announces that he’s gay.
Marketing Magazine adds: After hearing complaints from some
of the CAW’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members, the union began
contacting other members last weekend advising them of the spot and
recommending they contact Mr. Sub to express their displeasure, said Shannon
Devine, a CAW communications director.
“In the last few days, the sandwich chain Mr. Sub has come
out with a new commercial which is shocking (and completely ridiculous) in the
way that it mocks the LGBT community,” wrote Devine in one e-mail. “This is
offensive and we must let Mr. Sub know that making fun of our LGBT sisters and
brothers and the very difficult and often painful coming out process is no way
to sell submarine sandwiches.”
Dealing
with homosexuality in advertising remains a delicate issue. Here’s an insightful view on the subject
from Advertising Pawn:
Mainstream advertising has been much clumsier in its
approach of the gay community. And the harsh backlash that surrounds
odd-inspired or ill-advised
attempts acts as a bitter reminder that gay advertising is still
considered more-thorny-than-horny territory. This is not bad advertising. And most of the times, it isn’t
intentionally homophobic advertising either; but advertising that tackles the
gay issue from a straight vantage point.
In the same spirit with which adolescent boys might be prone
to engage in homophobic verbal attacks to affirm their straight manliness;
advertising often refer to gays to emphasize a contrast, an opposition. This is
unfortunate but normal, since our culture places such a high value on
masculinity-over-femininity ideal; and homosexuality is viewed as the ultimate
betrayal of this unspoken rule.
This results in a series of – sometimes genuinely funny –
gay-themed commercials that treat homosexuality either as a straight man’s
nightmare, a mistake imputed to mismanaged testosterone, an uncomfortable
misunderstanding, or just plain insecure fear (which is why the sound of a soap
dropping on the floor of a public shower will usually be similar to one of a
nuclear explosion). In the end, all of them end up selling a taboo more than
the product itself.
Here are a few examples. You be the judge and decide if they
should trigger a letter writing campaign that gets the agency fired.
Virgin Atlantic
Motorola
Stoker
Clio
Hyundai
Gay-friendly brands
This week in New York, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation hosted its inaugural Media Awards in Advertising. Recognizing
advancements in the fair representation of the gay community in advertising,
the award show celebrated the work of 10 brands that have made strides to
increase the size, diversity and accuracy of LGBT-related images in
advertising.
You can find out more about GLAAD's advertising media program here.
According to an article in Ad Age about the award show, 'Perhaps the most poignant moment of the evening came when
Subaru CMO Tim Mahoney accepted his company's Corporate Responsibility Award.
Subaru was the first national automaker to extend benefits to same-sex domestic
partners. And for more than 15 years, it's been a respected example of brand
building by a marketer that chose to tap a growing consumer niche despite
obvious corporate hurdles and cultural taboos. "I remember thinking, I
could get fired for this," Mr. Mahoney said of his decision to present
gay-specific research findings to Subaru's execs back in the early '90s. The
most common soundbite from focus groups at the time was, "All my friends
who have Subarus are lesbians."
Quebeckers and same sex relationships
According to PMB 2009, 26.5% of Quebeckers 18+ strongly
agree with the statement ‘I believe I should be supportive of same sex
relationships” compared to 19% of Canadians in the ROC.
Perhaps more telling is this finding from a 2004 survey
conducted by Léger Marketing. Asked the question ‘Would you be totally in
favour, somewhat in favour, somewhat opposed or totally opposed to insults or
homophobic name calling being as severely reprimanded as racist or anti-Semitic
insults?’, 75% of Quebeckers were in favour
compared to 58% of Canadians in the ROC.
Interesting article about the re-launch of marketing trade magazine AMPQ as MARKETING QC.
Editor in chief of Infopresse, Marie-Claude Ducas says that as Marketing QC’s competitor she welcomes the new title into the market. Infopresse is also printed 10 times a year with a paid circulation of 7,000. “There is a lot to cover and a lot of issues,” she says. “The industry only has something to gain from them being there. We can’t be sorry that a player like Marketing is interested in Quebec.”
It had to happen eventually. This blog is about marketing in
Québec so it’s to be expected that we would touch on an industry that’s
thriving in the province. (Not to mention that the word pornography will likely
drive the number of visits to our modest blog.)
Our interest in the topic was prompted by this TV spot for a
German specialty TV channel posted on Infopresse's website.
We could not find much data on the consumption of
pornography by Quebeckers and Canadians in the ROC. But we found this
interesting article on the production of pornography in Québec in, of all
places, the Christian Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt:
Montreal: One of the world's capitals in pornography
production
Not only does Quebec have Canada's lowest birth and highest
abortion rates, but it is also considered to be one of the global pornography
industry's largest hubs, after Amsterdam and Los Angeles.
Montreal, named Canada's 'femme fatale' city for its moral
laxity, is the online pornography capital of Canada, at least in terms of
production.
Michael Plant, a Quebec City-based "adult
entertainment" entrepreneur says that Montreal's pornographic boom is
natural since Quebeckers have "open-minds" when it comes to
performing sexual acts on camera.
"The girls are less shy about posing nude in front of a
camera or having sex in front of the camera compared to girls from Ontario, for
example," he says.
Montreal has been the longtime problem-child of Canada.
Montreal is home to more thriving strip clubs, sex shops, swingers and escort
services than any other province. In recent years, the local production of
pornography movies has provided multi-million dollar business for the city.
So there you have it, our one and only pornographic post.
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