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December 2006 - Strategy Magazine
Upfront

Fido fetches urbanites with pomo take on old tales

by Annette Bourdeau
page 8

Fido's getting fresh this Christmas, with a charming new holiday campaign that features a stylish young Scrooge and a youthful, urban Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Oh, and a dog. Of course.

"We're borrowing classic Christmas tales and we're making them post-modern," explains Guy Bourgeois, business manager, national advertising at Montreal-based Fido Mobile, adding that the ads are highly stylized with special effects to appeal to its young target, urbanites 25-34. "We really want to cut through all the noise at Christmas...we think this is going to break through."

The campaign, by Bos Montreal, includes two TV spots that are running in English and French across Canada, online ads on sites like Yahoo Canada and MuchMusic,com, as well as print and OOH efforts in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. "We've focused on a more urban strategy for OOH - bars, restaurants," says Bourgeois.

One of the TV spots plays on A Christmas Carol, with a thirtysomething Scrooge refusing to answer his cellphone because it's too expensive. Fido comes along with its unlimited urban call package, and Scrooge is free to chat freely with friends and become sociable. The other spot pushes the unlimited couples plan and features a young Santa and spouse, who had to lay off all their elves because their cellphone bills were so high before Fido. "The general theme is: 'It's an unlimited Christmas,'" says Bourgeois.

The tales are also posted at www.fido.ca.

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