The Wool Bureau of Canada is hoping an eight-page insert, to appear in several national publications, will convince younger Canadians that wool is hip.
‘We’ve already convinced and sold [wool] many times over to older people,’ says Kirsten Mogg, marketing and retail manager for the bureau. But, she says, urban professionals, aged 25-35, still need to be shown that wool is not just for older people or for formal occasions.
The Wool Bureau of Canada represents the interests of wool growers in Australia, South Africa and Uruguay.
The insert, created in conjunction with Maclean’s, will appear this fall in the national newsmagazine, as well as in Toronto Life, The Globe and Mail and the in-flight magazine of Canadian Airlines.
Toronto’s McKim Media Group handled the media buy.
The changing work environment – where casual wear is not only acceptable but often encouraged – has not been a huge help for the fibre. Long considered the standby for suits and formal wear, wool doesn’t spell casual to the younger worker accustomed to cotton and cotton-blends.
The insert, which carries the tag line ‘Looks good. Very good.’ features young, urban Canadian ‘up-and-comers’ such as singer/songwriters Amy Sky and Marc Jordan, and snack food siblings Chris and Peter Neal. The models are wearing casual-style clothing, says Mogg, adding, ‘Wool isn’t only for formal occasions.’
