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December 2006 - Strategy Magazine
Special Report: Agency of the Year

Honourable Mention: Taxi

by Natalia Williams
page 49

CASE STUDIES

CANADIAN TIRE

After seven years, the long-running "Ted and Gloria" campaign was showing signs of fatigue. Taxi's challenge was to develop an approach that worked just as hard on a product-by-product level, but also helped to build the Canadian Tire brand at a higher level.

The resulting campaign uses a device that is an integral part of the customer experience: the aisle sign. From a shopper's point of view they make navigating the store easier. From a communication perspective it is a flexible but unifying platform able to introduce new products and move easily from season to season.

The "Aisle Signs" campaign launched in early spring and has featured products ranging from backyard living, camping equipment and closet organizers to hockey gear and back-to-school supplies.

So far the results have been impressive. Awareness scores for the overall campaign are at 90%. Same-store sales, a key retail measure, are up versus last year. The value of the average transaction has increased and research has shown the campaign is tracking well above norm on enjoyability as well as refreshing the brand's image.

FRESCA

The soft drink category has some of the world's biggest, most established brands built by decades of support and millions of dollars in investment. Fresca was an outsider, a 35-year-old soft drink that had always been a niche player. Even its most loyal users didn't know how to describe its taste, which is made from a combination of grapefruit and other citruses. This proved to be an ideal strategic springboard to distinguish the brand from its competition.

There were several goals: reinforce current and lapsed users' affection for the brand; increase awareness and trial among non-users; and finally, convince retailers to stock the brand, as historically it had had limited distribution, which made it very difficult to increase its share.

The soft drink category usually relies heavily on TV, but to avoid the big-brand treatment, Taxi chose to lead with a heavy radio buy supported with out-of-home activity. The strategy was to parody brand messages that lack originality by highlighting Fresca's distinctiveness as both a product and a brand with taglines such as "Fresca. The Fresca of soft drinks." The campaign is the beginning of a longer-term effort, but there has already been an increased shelf presence.

MINI

Mini is an iconoclastic brand. While most automotive brands rely on big TV budgets, Mini uses online for long copy, and OOH and guerrilla tactics for emphasis and brand building. In the past year, a multi-phase campaign leveraged this alternative approach to stretch a limited budget and shift messaging to product substance.

Phase 1 addressed misperceptions arising from the car's small size with The Speed and Safety Scenario Simulator to give users a "virtual driving scenario" where they could experience Mini's features in action.

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