Perhaps cloning wouldn’t be such a bad idea if the world could have another Gandhi or two. Toronto-based IMA Outdoor (International Media Advertising) asked GO Transit riders back in January whether it would be right to genetically copy the famous spiritual leader, when it ran a controversial campaign on cloning. Each instalment featured one positive and one negative personality, for example Gandhi and Osama bin Laden, with the questions ‘yes?’ and ‘no?’ below their respective photographs.
But the purpose was not to gauge consumer attitudes on cloning. Rather, the intent was to study the recall of outdoor advertising, with the help of the research arm of Media Buying Services, Toronto. According to IMA strategic development director John Baird, who has been in the outdoor business for 20-odd years, there is a lack of research on the effectiveness of the medium.
‘Clients are really concerned about ROI, and they’re fairly risk averse,’ he says. ‘Generally outdoor gets 4% to 5% of media dollars spent, so the awareness level isn’t that great to start with. When you’re a niche player up against the big guys like Viacom and Pattison, you have to do more to stand out in the marketplace.’
The six-week campaign, created by Toronto-based agency Zoggen, was set up like a typical client media buy, with 51 posters erected throughout the GO station network. In early February, a week after the ads came down, MBS intercepted 350 GO riders at Toronto’s Union Station to test their awareness of the ads, as well as their overall recall of transit advertising.
Unaided recall of the cloning posters was 8%, which is about twice the average, according to MBS’s standards. When asked the question, ‘Do you remember seeing an ad for cloning?’ 49% of commuters said they had, surpassing MBS’s average aided recall of 25%. IMA plans to use these results in promotional/marketing brochures, as well as in a print ad campaign.
Of course, the fact that the ads played on a controversial theme – at the same time The Raelians were announcing they had cloned a baby – likely helped riders recollect the posters. However, this just proves that outdoor advertising must ‘have impact, have relevance and [consist of] good creative,’ says Baird. ‘We needed a good poster that would evoke some emotion and was visually interesting.’ Plus, Baird adds, 30% of riders who were surveyed recalled out-of-home media in general. ‘Outdoor as a category outpulled radio and newspaper.’
Bruce Claassen, president of Toronto’s Genesis Media, says the effort is somewhat ‘self-serving’ and that other companies have tried similar tactics in the past to prove outdoor’s effectiveness. Nonetheless, he also says he would consider the results seriously.
‘[You would look at it] just as you would any other data in terms of media,’ he says. ‘The point of this is to say that outdoor is a medium that has the capacity to build brands and [have] some degree of influence among consumers. It’s not inconceivable. I think more media should do research that delineates the degree of effectiveness that they would be able to deliver.’
When it comes to outdoor transit advertising, it’s also important to note that GO commuters are an affluent group, adds Baird.
According to a demographic survey of over 13,000 participants, 85% of GO commuters are aged 25 to 54, and 61% have an annual income greater than $70,000. A two-year-old study from the City of Toronto’s Commissioner of Urban Development Services found that 80% of all people who live in the 905 area code corridor surrounding Toronto, but work in the downtown core, take GO Transit.
‘If you’re an advertiser, this is a group that can’t be overlooked,’ says Baird, who adds that 87% are homeowners and 60% have two cars. ‘They own more cars than the norm, and have more houses than the norm. It’s a highly coveted group.’
Baird adds that about 3.4 million Ontarians ride the GO train each month. ‘We wanted to beat our drum and draw attention to ourselves in a crowded market.’ And no doubt any ad featuring bin Laden and Gandhi together would accomplish that.
