What Québec Wants™

Ditch the blonde when advertising in Québec. - Part 2

A follow-up to a post from a year ago.

It referred to the president of Ipsos-ASI, a reputable advertising research firm, advising against featuring blondes in ads in Québec since blondes only make up only about 3% of the Québec population.

I argued that this simply reinforces one of many clichés about the kind of advertising that works and doesn’t work in Québec.

Ipsos Reid, a sister company to Ipsos-ASI, just released a survey it conducted on behalf of Schwarzkopf Professional that sheds new light on this burning question.

A majority (59%) of Canadians ‘agree’ (13% strongly/45% somewhat) that ‘blondes are sexy’, with men (67%) being especially likely to think so. Just four in ten (41%) ‘disagree’ (11% strongly/30% somewhat). In fact, given the choice to choose any hair colour for a day, fully one in three (33%) Canadians would go/stay blonde, rather than choose any other hair colour (67%), with Quebecers (37%) being the most likely to say they’d want to go/stay blonde.

Case closed.

One-upmanship

 

Wikipedia defines one-upmanship as the art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor. And if marketing is mainly about creating relevant differentiation, there has to be a good dose of one-upmanship in any strategy to succeed.

I’m a fan of Home Depot’s campaign in Québec. The global retailer took steps to study this market and developed a campaign that clearly resonates with Quebeckers. Built around the thematic “C’est beau” (It’s beautiful), it emphasizes the end-result of home renovation projects and the pleasures it provides rather than the ‘you can do it’ part of DIY projects. The campaign is clearly working as it won an effectiveness award at the 2009 Concours STRAT in Québec.

The local competitor, Réno Dépôt, has long been associated with a claim that, whatever you might be looking for, “they have it”. It might still be the retailer’s relevant and differentiated platform. (It’s the brand signature on the website. However, these days the retailer is running a campaign that attempts one-upmanship. It’s claiming that Réno Dépôt is “more than beautiful”. The implication being that beyond looks alone, Réno Dépôt ensures that it’s well built. There’s nothing wrong with a strategy that counters a competitor’s claim.

What’s debatable however is an execution of this strategy that very overtly makes a reference to that competitor’s advertising.

Would Adidas ever just do it more? Would Audi be the penultimate driving experience? Or would PC’s ever think even more different?

 

 

Encouraging Québec women to listen to the cancer that whispers.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are difficult to identify for both patients and healthcare professionals. Not only are the signs vague and easily missed, there is no reliable early detection screening test available. That’s why listening to one’s body can make all the difference. The statistics tell the story: 70% of women diagnosed at a late stage with ovarian cancer will not survive more than five years while 90% will survive if diagnosed early.

Working with Ovarian Cancer Canada, Headspace Marketing created an awareness campaign aimed at women in Québec. The campaign literally turns up the volume on the cancer that whispers. The campaign includes a :30 TV spot, print and interactive ads and the website soyealecoute featuring Dr. Valerie Garneau.

This awareness campaign, featured in today’s issue of Infopresse Infopresse online, was created with the generous support of Les Productions 401, Pear Interactive, Louise Savoie Photographe, Boogie Studio, Pierre-Olivier Boucher, L’Oreille cassée, Marie Charlebois and VMS productions.

 

Ovarian Cancer Canada - Chuchotements from Headspace Marketing on Vimeo.

Who can you trust?

 

Quebeckers appear less likely than Canadians living in the rest of Canada to trust the following groups of people:

• Canadian soldiers
• Police officers
• Judges
• Church leaders
• Financial advisors

(Source: Ipsos Reid survey on behalf of PostMedia News. Poll conducted between January 5 to 10, 2011.)

Johnny Depp had this to say about trust:

Me, I'm dishonest, and you can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest. Honestly, it's the honest ones you have to watch out for.

Financial advisors in Québec might be getting a bad rap from the Earl Jones story last year – Québec’s Bernie Madoff.

Here’s a not so subtle reference to it in a new outdoor poster for the CFA designation. It reads: “We are financial advisors that are too honest to be well-known.”

 

Headspace Marketing & Gadoua win twice at the 2011 CASSIES

Last night at the CASSIES awards in Toronto, our case for the launch of Gadoua MultiGo won the Bronze in the Off To A Good Start category and our case for Gadoua Moelleux won the bronze in the Packaged Goods category.

The CASSIES (Canadian Advertising Success Stories) is dedicated to recognizing, rewarding and improving the business effectiveness of advertising. This is highlighted by the annual CASSIES Awards, which are based on rigorous case histories of success.

We created Headspace Marketing to put the accent on stratégy. These awards confirm it.

 

 

 

 

George Clooney for Nespresso in France but not in Québec

The Nespresso campaign created by McCann Paris starring George Clooney is a huge success across Europe and in Australia. In airs in France in English with French sub-titles.

Could it ever air that way in Québec? In fact, could any TV spot air on French TV using English voices and French sub-titles? (Assuming an advertiser would want to take this approach.)

This is the CBC|Radio-Canada policy 1.3.7 on the language of broadcast:

Only advertisements designed for anglophone or francophone audiences or website visitors may be carried by CBC/Radio-Canada  English or French services respectively.

A language other than that of the station's may be used, however, as a device to attract attention or create an artistic effect. In such cases, the advertisement must remain intelligible to the audience and website visitors, and the advertiser must use appropriate means to adapt its message to the service's majority audience.

I sent this Nespresso spot to the SRC wondering if using an English-speaking Clooney could be considered 'a device to attract attention or create an artistic effect'.

The answer: We do not approve messages in English with French sub-titles. (Les messages que nous approuvons et qui contiennent des vedettes anglophones sont traduites en français.  Nous n'approuvons pas les messages en anglais avec sous-titres français.)

----

Here's the most recent spot in the campaign featuring Clooney and John Malkovich. More on this campaign here.

From Jig-A-Loo to Angelcare and Céline Dion

I'll be your cloud up in the sky

I'll be your shoulder when you cry

I'll hear your voices when you call me

I am your angel

You could add “I’ll be your spokesperson/endorser” to this Céline Dion hit song.

I came across this magazine ad in the most recent issue of magazine Enfants Québec.

Unless it’s a cause she supports, Céline Dion isn’t in the habit of pitching products she doesn’t have a financial interest in. Why would she lend her face to a brand of baby monitors?

The Angelcare website tells the story of its founder Maurice Pinsonnault, a Quebecker and “a new father overwhelmed with the anxiety which all new parents face.”

Maurice Pinsonnault is much more than a concerned father. He’s an investor-entrepreneur. And according to an article published in The Gazette in 2008, he was once the force behind Jig-A-Loo, the now ubiquitous WD-40 alternative.

The Gazette writes “Maurice Pinsonnault bought the company in 2004 from Pierre Hébert, son of Jig-A-Loo's founder and inventor, and sold it in 2006, but not because he saw no future in the firm. Au contraire, he said, "it's a fine product." But proper expansion of the Jig-A-Loo brand would have required a major investment, cash that Pinsonnault needed to develop his core business of baby products.”

Céline Dion is either a huge fan of Angelcare, a personal friend of Maurice Pinsonnault or both.

That’s an angel of an endorsement and more proof that entrepreneurship is alive and well in Québec despite what some studies on the subject may conclude.

Guess who’s going to spend the least amount of time holiday shopping this year?

According to a new poll by Ipsos Reid conducted for PayPal, it will take the average Canadian 11 hours to complete their holiday shopping.

Quebeckers will spend the least amount of time with an average of 9.7 hours while residents of the Atlantic Provinces will take the longest to complete their shopping in 12.2 hours.

The survey also reveals that Quebeckers are least likely to do their holiday shopping online.

------

This post is an excuse to show the holiday campaign we adapted for our client Virgin Mobile. The original concept was developed by Juniper Park.

Only tasteful logos and no fast food or automotive sponsors for Montréal’s metro.

The news that the STM (Montréal’s public transit authority) was mulling the idea to increase its revenues by offering sponsorship deals caused quite the uproar.  It seems Montrealers are not ready to have their metro’s lines renamed and their colours changed to promote brands. Projet Montréal led the opposition by releasing this mocked metro map. [Notice how the St-Lawrence River is sponsored by Molson’s.]

The STM responded to the pressure - no renaming or changing of the lines’ colours. According to STM Director Yves Devin quoted in The Gazette “It will have to be discreet.” He added “companies in sectors deemed inappropriate - fast-food restaurants and carmakers, for example -will not be welcome. Only large firms that do business in Québec and have sustainable development policies will be allowed. A company could use its logo or just its name on the official system map, which is posted in metros and stations and distributed on paper. If it's a logo it will have to be tasteful".

The Gazette reports that the STM will open the sponsorship to public tenders in a few weeks, seeking corporations interested in signing 10-year "partnership" deals. If the STM is not happy with proposals or the amount of money offered, it will drop the idea.

Small corporations with cheap, tasteless logos refrain. How’s that for an RFP?

-------

On a related note, the Journal de Montréal reports this morning that Banque Laurentienne will be installing this "Station carrière" (Carreer Station) recruitment center in the BerriUQAM metro station. The bank hires more than 300 new employees every year and hopes to tap into UQAM's business school.

Question: is Banque Laurentienne's logo tasteful enough for the Metro?

Too sexy for kids?

A follow-up on a post from June 2009 about sex in advertising.

It referred to a survey by Léger Marketing that asked Canadians about whether there is too much sex in advertising.

Quebeckers were least likely to say that there is too much sex in advertising.

This brings me to the news that the appropriately named perfume “Heat” by Beyoncé Knowles has sparked several complaints and has been banned from daytime airing in the U.K. The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority ruled that “although we considered that the ad was unlikely to be harmful to adults or older children, we considered that Beyoncé's body movements and the camera's prolonged focus on shots of her dress slipping away to partially expose her breasts created a sexually provocative ad that was unsuitable to be seen by young children.”

Quebeckers might be more tolerant of sex in advertising. However, they’re also least tolerant of advertising to children – it’s banned. While the Beyoncé spot isn’t aimed at kids under 13 and doesn’t promote a children product, I wonder how the ASC and broadcasters in Québec would respond to complaints about a dress slipping away to partially expose breasts.

Here’s the spot.(And in case it isn’t obvious, this post is just an excuse to drive traffic to this blog with the word “sexy” in the title).