Can/West GlobalL'Oreal L’Oreal had built an association with International Women’s Day (IWD) in Quebec, and was looking for a mechanism to build a similar association in English Speaking Canada. The primary objective was to:Raise awareness for International Women’s Day among all English Canadian women to that consistent with French Canada over the next 2-3 years. When prompted, the majority of English Canadians (>70%) have heard of the day, but were not familiar with its distinction or importance;Tie L’Oreal to IWD in a subtle manner by ensuring that L’Oreal’s participation reflected it’s own positioning – of giving women confidence, and stature; Build a strong foundation for the event and L’Oreal’s participation that is relevant to the target, stands up to rigorous scrutiny, and is renewable;The success of Year I, would establish it’s position in L’Oreal’s long term plans;Provide a mechanism to include L’Oreal’s charity The Canadian Women’s Foundation;Provide broad national English Coverage. Develop an integrated model that capitalizes on the new media landscape of converged offerings and the International Women’s Day Event. The concept: Profile renowned Canadian women to speak about International Woman’s day, it’s meaning and relevance in the current and future lives of women. A compelling series of vignettes and editorials by these women was produced by media partner (Can/West Global) to form the foundation of a month long campaign. (L’Oreal donated to the women’s charities in appreciation for their efforts)Specially produced branded signature ads would complement the campaign through their simple relevant message of acknowledging womenMulti-media platforms were employed:The campaign would build to March 8th International Women’s DayTelevision showcased the Vignettes with the L’Oreal signature ads for three weeks leading up to March 8th. Pre-selected top 10 rated women’s programmes were purchased for their environment and balanced so that women of all ages would be reached (Grammy Awards, Survivor, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Practice, Dawson’s Creek etc.) Vignettes were strategically placed to match the programme environment: Denise Donlan, president Of Sony Music Canada was aired in the Grammy’s, Dr. Nutt in Survivor and so on.Internet presence coincided with the television efforts featuring editorial and signature ads on Canad.Com that linked to the L’Oreal site.Custom Published a 40 Page Magazine designed to be a keepsake featured additional editorial from the women across from their striking Black & White Portrait.A specifically written editorial opened the supplement and the signature ad took the outside back cover.Licensed a Vintage French Movie – “how to Steal a Million” and placed it on Prime – the #1 Women’s network for 25-54 age group – commercial free.Pre-promoted the cable show across Canada in TV Times with a special adMarch 8th ran sequential 1/3 pages with the signature ad leading to the Outside Back Cover of the first section in Financial Post, and a handful of selected major dailies.March 8th – developed special on-line creative on Canada.Com that drove to L’Oreal web site – where visitors were encouraged to send one of the cards to a friend – L’Oreal donating $1.00 to charityMarch 9th – took advantage of the inaugural issue of Fashion Post with the signature ad and a branded ad.How did we perform?At the onset, Optimedia insisted that a pre-wave tracking be implemented to measure campaign results.While the full post-wave tracking is not complete (as of this writing) – preliminary results indicate:Awareness of International Women’s day increased from 73% (aided) to 85%.L’Oreal’s association with the day increased from 9 to19%We are tracking right for year 1, and will continue to build the association in the years to come. This was 100% a media solution to a challenge that L’Oreal gave to the AOR group at Optimedia. Creative executions were the consequence of the bigger media idea. The media group managed the entire campaign (a 9 month process) from inception to conclusion including developing a mini pre/post awareness test. Leveraged relationship with one of Canada’s key media owners to develop relevant content, and then organized its utilization across multi-media platforms.Suggested and implemented a tracking survey to help measure achievements. This is a big powerful idea, in that it took a little known event, and turned it into an emotionally charged entity, through which L’Oreal could convey their corporate position and values.

The campaign centered on a global event (International Women’s Day) for a global client with the intellectual and financial means, desire, and courage to bring this relatively new manner of media protocol about.What was the new protocol? Media Convergence - a much misunderstood initiative in Canada. Media Convergence is all about Content Convergence.In the case of International Women’s day, we were able to identify relevant content that would serve as the creative foundation for the multi-media execution.We pioneered a new approach for a mass marketer to uniquely create an important event, and become inescapably linked with the event in a subtle manner.At the time of the campaign, this was only the second large-scale, national convergence package executed in Canada, and the only one that dealt with a true mass target group. The fact that we were reaching Canadian women of all ages and all social strata’s provided a key challenge in the identification, selection and implementation of the content.The success of the programme, it’s uniqueness is why this should be a winner.

This was 100% a media solution to a challenge that L’Oreal gave to the AOR group at Optimedia. Creative executions were the consequence of the bigger media idea. The media group managed the entire campaign (a 9 month process) from inception to conclusion including developing a mini pre/post awareness test. Leveraged relationship with one of Canada’s key media owners to develop relevant content, and then organized its utilization across multi-media platforms.Suggested and implemented a tracking survey to help measure achievements.