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November 2007 - Strategy Magazine
Agency of the Year

Finalist - Rethink

Last's year's Gold winner, Vancouver-based Rethink, maintains its presence in AOY with more work that tickles the funny bone. Judge Sloan Dinning, director, brand and marketing communications at Vancity, named the agency's Playland campaign one of his favourite three: "The campaign is witty, rewarding for the consumer and fun. Isn't that what Playland is all about?"

SLICE

After years of declining ratings, Alliance Atlantis decided to completely revamp the Life Network, a specialty cable channel with programming aimed at women 18 to 49. The plan was to start from scratch with a new name, logo, schedule and target market. Enter Rethink. The agency's mission was to not only create advertising for the new network but contribute to its mandate, programming and on-air look and feel.

Following extensive interviews, the agency decided to create a women's channel with attitude, devoted to fun, sexy shows that were pure entertainment - something lacking in the Canadian TV landscape. The goal was to attract a younger, more sophisticated, more urban group of women - with the majority in their 30s - a demographic matching that of the media buyers and planners they were targeting. The net would be devoted to fulfilling guilty viewing pleasures for women. Rethink also recommended the name Slice as an "evolution" from Life, with the tagline, "My vice is Slice."

The resulting creative played off the net's status as a vice. So, for example, TV and radio spots were sponsored by the fictional "Coalition of Neglected Vices," which lobbied women to come back to their old vices. The first phase consisted of a trade launch and advertising campaign in fall 2006. The consumer campaign launched in late February, and included print, cinema and OOH as well as ads in fitness centres and women's washrooms.

The network went live on March 5, 2007. Within three months it had increased its ratings by 20% versus Life Network ratings in the same period in 2006, and reached the targeted younger audience, according to BBM/NMR numbers.

B.C. LIONS

The B.C. Lions have experienced a strong resurgence over the past several years, which culminated with the team winning the Grey Cup last year. Yet, in 2006, average home game attendance dipped slightly. Rethink's goal: bring back the fans.

There are three types of Lions fans: hardcore fans who never miss a game, hardcore fans who generally watch the games on TV and "bandwagon" fans who attend games only if the Lions are having a winning season. All tend to be male, suburban, blue-collar and between the ages of 25 and 45. Rethink's plan was to convert more bandwagon fans into hardcore fans who would attend more home games.

The campaign was based on two insights: in the CFL, rivalries with other cities are vital; and fans love the game's speed and hard, physical nature. Print would focus on the former; broadcast on the latter.

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