Canadian Tire’s latest commercial is unlike most of the work the brand has produced in recent years. There’s a simple enough reason for this: it is, after all, called “We Do New.”
The spot, which began airing last week, is devoid of the emotional pull of Canadian Tire’s most recent holiday campaign, or of the patriotic message of its “We All Play For Canada” Olympic platform. Instead, a series of vibrant shapes and animated motion graphics dance across the screen to fun, lyric-less tunes produced for the campaign. The ad is for a “super new, super epic, winter conquering” staple of Canadian households: windshield washer fluid.
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The spot supports a very specific product, though it also serves as a general reminder that Canadian Tire introduces some 13,000 new products every year, either through innovation of existing products – the Reflex Ice Defence Washer Fluid being one – or through adding new items to its assortment.
Creative is rolling out across broadcast, paid digital and out-of-home until the end of the month, at which point it will receive evergreen support across paid and owned channels through to December of this year.
“We Do New” is really about reminding customers that the retailer is “always working to deliver new solutions to get even more out of life in Canada,” says Canadian Tire’s Eva Salem, VP of strategic marketing.
While new products have always been important to consumers, she says, research shows that consumers today usually perceive new products as being better than their predecessors. “We believe Canadians are just more sensitive to this given the pace of innovation that affects virtually all aspects of their lives. More than ever, there is an assumption that a newer, better version of a product is or will be available.”
To communicate that notion of “newest,” Canadian Tire worked with U.S.-based design-driven agency BUCK on the graphic animation, with creative direction overseen by AOR Taxi. Touche is handling the media portion of the assignment.
The retailer and Taxi “agreed that we needed to come up with something very different and ‘new’ to credibly communicate our commitment to the latest and great products to Canadians,” Salem says. At the same time, it wanted creative that could be easily be adapted across channels and that retained the core essence of Canadian Tire’s marketing mix, she says.
The considerable flexibility that comes with graphic-based creative will allow it to be adapted to highlight other product innovations in the future. Salem says the retailer plans to follow up the current campaign with more spots in the spring and later in 2019.
