strategy - Agency of the Year

Lowe Roche

Capital One • o.b. • Mackenzie Investments • Toronto Zoo • Stella Artois

Toronto Zoo

Lowe Roche’s campaign for the Toronto Zoo had to break through the summer activities clutter as well as lure families away from amusement parks. But the zoo’s non-profit budget meant they needed to effectively trigger buzz in the Greater Toronto Area, and unlike in previous years, there was no new visiting attraction.

Following research, the agency learned that people think ordinary animals are not as exciting as zoo animals. The campaign would therefore centre on the jealousy everyday animals like squirrels, cats and pigeons felt towards their more exotic counterparts.

The resulting work was multiplatform, including a 30-second TV spot, print, cinema and a microsite showing jealous animals in action. To bring the campaign to life, Lowe Roche staged a pigeon protest, complete with media kits from disgruntled pigeons, including a pigeon manifesto, footage of the protest and comments from the CEO of the zoo. A blog was also created with footage from the protest and the spot. Hotmail and YouTube were also used to interact with their younger target.

It worked. The buzz created around the city was impressive and included a full-page cover story in the National Post. Online, there were 100,000 hits to jealousanimals.com. Best of all, attendance at the zoo was up over 7% versus summer 2005, which made for another record year.

Television