It was a dark and stormy morning, the first bitterly cold day of 2003. Slip-sliding through an icy wind tunnel toward its Toronto office was an intrepid media team from OMD Canada. Destination: a brainstorming session with Campbell Soup Canada.
Even before everyone’s teeth stopped chattering, inspiration struck. Why not connect cold weather to hot soup with a precedent-setting multimedia campaign that would run only on days when the temperature dropped below -5 C?
It sounded ‘m’m m’m good,’ but next to impossible for logistic reasons, says Ann Stewart, OMD’s managing director. ‘But the more excited we got about it, the more determined we were to pull it off.’
It didn’t exactly hurt that Toronto-based Campbell Canada president Philip Donne was in on the epiphany that day. He instantly greenlighted the innovative eight-week campaign because: ‘What better way to tap into the feeling that hot soup is great on a cold day…than to get involved with the weather, and to break through the clutter in a way that no one else has done?’
The initial step, says group media director Debbie Salmon, was getting media vendors on board. First up, logically enough, was The Weather Network, which not only agreed to air a series of 10-second spots, but promised to alert the other media outlets in the campaign whenever the mercury was slated to drop to -5.
Three other components were then tossed in: ads on the weather pages of the National Post and the Toronto Star; radio spots scheduled during traffic reports; and an Internet scroll message posted on The Weather Network’s home page and e-mailed to individuals signed up to its database.
OMD affiliated shop BBDO did the creative in lightning-quick time – the TV version of which is a thermometer whose mercury rapidly slips until it disappears into a Campbell’s soup can. Then everyone waited for the temperature to drop. It did so just seven days after the winter-inspired brainstorm and, on Jan. 28, the campaign rolled out in the Toronto area.
Donne says it’s been such a success so far that it may well be extended to other cities next winter.
The only real glitch, says Stewart, was the lengthy cold snap Toronto had in February. ‘Initially, we did our traffic planning based on tracking the incidence of minus-five days over the past several winters. But this year was a complete surprise to everybody.’ Did Old Man Winter bust the media budget? ‘Not really,’ she says, ‘because we found ways to strategically tighten up.’
MEDIA snapshot
Name: Ann Stewart
Position: managing director, OMD Canada, Toronto
Hometown: Toronto
Fave winter comfort food: cream of tomato soup
Secret of success: keeping consumers at the forefront of everything you do
Professional turn-ons: creative team work, especially with savvy clients
What jet-propelled this campaign insight: a dark Monday morning, when the temperature was -30 and all we really wanted to do was stay in bed and keep warm
MEDIA snapshot
Name: Debbie Salmon
Position: group media director, OMD Canada, Toronto, on the job only two months (previously media manager at Optimedia, Toronto)
Hometown: Toronto
Fave soup: Campbell’s new Gardennay products, yet to be launched in Ontario
Soup-loving kids: sons – aged 1 and 3 – big chicken noodle fans
Professional turn-on: synergy of getting all the disciplines together to formulate great communication insights that we can leverage
