Daewoo melds media in car giveaway

Daewoo Auto Canada, together with media partners Canoe and Sun Media, has added a new twist to the typical click-and-win promotion by using traditional media to promote and execute its recent online car giveaway.

To enter the draw, users had to locate a special icon – a Daewoo Nubira sporting a canoe on its roof – published daily in Sun newspapers, and then identify its location on the Canoe.ca Daewoo contest microsite.

The contest, which ran in the Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax markets, targeted consumers looking to buy a vehicle in the next year. A total of 43,853 Canadians signed up for the promotion.

Hiding images within the pages of a newspaper for readers to find and identify is nothing new, says Jay Donnelly, corporate marketing director for Sun Media, but forcing them to seek out the entry ballot online is. And that combination of old and new media provided a couple of distinct advantages.

"Consumers were able to go in and find out all kinds of information, or even set up an appointment with Daewoo," he says. "In a traditional print promotion, you’d never get that depth.

"At the same time, a promotion [exclusive to] the Net has no qualifying nature to it – the newspaper stage lends credence to the contest and gives you a more qualified entrant."

The 21-day contest, which concluded earlier this month, was designed to build awareness for Daewoo, which has been operating in Canada for just over a year, and create some excitement around the all-new Nubira.

Brad Rome, national advertising manager for the Korean automaker, says it was logical to integrate an online component into the contest.

"The traditional method of finding a vehicle is newspaper, but more and more people are turning to the Internet for information and even trying to purchase vehicles online," says Rome. "It made sense to be in both media."

Online consumer incentive programs have grown in number lately, spurred on by technological advances and the growth of e-commerce activity. A wave of Canadian companies has launched online contests in the last six months, including Tridel Corporation (which recently gave away a $160,000 condominium), Canada Post, Chapters.ca, Ford Motor Company of Canada and Look Communications.

And while the obvious advantage of Web-based contests has been their potential to gather valuable demographic, behavioural and contact information about those who enter, the Daewoo initiative did not have data collection at the top of its priority list.

"Our objective more than anything was to be able to provide information to people as they came through the site," says Rome. "It wasn’t to build a database. It was to give people an opportunity to find out about us, or ask for a brochure or a test drive."

He says there are no plans to follow up with registrants via e-mail. However, he says, contest participants were asked to complete short behavioural questionnaires on both the Canoe/Daewoo contest microsite, and on the Daewoo Canada site, to which they were automatically linked once they’d finished registering for the contest.

AnneMarie Wolkman, marketing manager with Canoe, says the questions on the microsite were not automotive-specific, but rather general questions on Internet usage to help the Web portal determine the type of contests and information users are looking for. The Daewoo survey, for its part, focused on gauging the buying nature of online users and target purchasers, she says.

"Certainly there are a lot of people who utilize online contests as a way of gathering information, but [we don’t want to] hinder people or make it so cumbersome that users don’t want to participate. It is an opportunity, but you don’t want to alienate your audience by asking too many proprietary questions," she says.

Cannes Lions 2025: Canadians nab more medals on final festival day

Strategy is on the ground in Cannes, bringing you the latest news, wins and conference highlights all week long. Catch all the coverage here.

Friday’s batch of Silver and Bronze winners included the oldest category at the Cannes festival, Film, as well as Sustainable Development Goals, Dan Wieden Titanium, Glass: The Lion for Change and Grand Prix for Good. Canadians were recognized with four Lions today: two Silver and a Bronze in Film, as well as a Bronze in Sustainable Development Goals.

FCB Toronto was given yet another nod for its work, “The Count,” for SickKids, bringing the medal count for that campaign to four, including a Gold for Health & Wellness. Another Canadian agency recognized on the final day of the festival was Klick Health Toronto, which earned a Silver in Film for its work “Love Captured” for Human Trafficking Awareness and a Bronze for “18 Months” for Second Nurture. And over in Sustainable Development Goals, the Bronze went to Publicis Canada and its “Wildfire Watchtowers” work for Rogers.

Another massive win for Canada included not one, but two Young Lions (pictured above) taking home medals in the annual competition. In Design, the Gold Young Lion was awarded to Rethink’s senior motion designer Jesse Shaw and ACD Zoë Boudreau. The second, a Bronze in Media, went to Cossette Media’s business intelligence analyst Samuel David-Durocher and product development supervisor Tristan Bonnot-Parent.

Film (2 Silver, 1 Bronze)

1 SILVER: “The  Count” by FCB Toronto for SickKids Foundation

“The Count,” a striking campaign from FCB Toronto for SickKids Foundation, has earned 1 Gold, 2 Bronze and now 1 Silver for Film at Cannes. If you watch it, it’s easy to see why. The collaboration between brand and agency honoured the hospital’s “VS” platform, while steering it in a new direction from its initial development by previous AOR Cossette. The creative celebrates childhood cancer patients who have to fight for every birthday, while honouring the hospital’s own milestone – 150 years and counting.

 

1 Silver: “Love Captured” by Klick Health Toronto for The Exodus Road

Klick Health Toronto added to its medal tally with a Silver in Film for it’s work “Love Captured” for The Exodus Road. The creative features a romantic getaway that isn’t what it seems in an experiential short film for the global anti-trafficking organization. The experience takes viewers through a tragic and twisting experience of exploitation.

 

1 BRONZE: “18 Months” by Klick Health Toronto for Second Nurture

Klick Health Toronto also won a Bronze in the Film category for its work, “18 Months,” done for the charity organization Second Nurture. The animated film is based on a real-life story in which a same-sex couple adopts a baby found in a subway station, and the 18-month journey into a story of hope.

Sustainable Development Goals (1 Bronze)

1 BRONZE: “Wildfire Watchtowers” by Publicis Canada for Rogers

Publicis Canada landed on the winners board for its work, “Wildfire Watchtowers,” for Rogers. The Canadian-developed wildfire-detection tech – which has been billed as “a fire alarm in the forest” – uses AI-powered sensors installed on 5G towers to monitor vast remote areas in real time. By scanning, identifying and reporting early signs of wildfires (up to 16 minutes faster than other systems), the technology helped prevent 54 fires in 2024 alone.

Catch the Gold winners later today when they’re revealed at the gala in Cannes.