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Canadian Direct names Noise as AOY

Media In Canada

News Briefs
by Katie Bailey

Canadian Direct Insurance has named Vancouver and Toronto-based digital agency Noise as its full-service agency of record.

The move, announced yesterday, brings all of Canadian Direct's marketing initiatives together under one provider. Noise will now handle traditional and digital campaign strategies, as well as media buying and planning.

The companies have been working together for six years on digital strategies, and in the past two years, the lines between traditional and digital media campaigns were blurring, so it made sense to go with a single agency for both, Trisha Tyrrell, senior manager, business development, Canadian Direct, tells MiC.

"They've been involved with our traditional campaigns for the past couple years and since they've been involved, I've found that their creative ideas and way of thinking were taking the lead," she explains. "[Going forward] I wasn't interested in working with two different agencies and I felt that Noise could do the job on both sides."

Canadian Direct's digital strategies have been almost too successful in recent years, Tyrrell says. When the insurer started driving people to its website to book their auto insurance online, it quickly consumed 60% of their business, she explains, which was too much for the company to handle. They've since dialed back their marketing creative drive-to-web and that part of the business now sits at a more-manageable 30%, she says.

Online tactics will continue to be a priority for Canadian Direct's media planning, a release on the announcement stated, but TV, print and radio will remain in the mix. The company declined to comment on its average media spend.

Canadian Direct Insurance Appoints Digital Agency as Lead

Noise hired as advertising AOR for insurance company

Vancouver, BC; June 14, 2010 – Canadian Direct Insurance announced today that it has named Noise as its advertising agency of record. Noise has been working as Canadian Direct’s digital agency for the past six years and has now been tasked with providing full service to Canadian Direct.

The bold move comes as agencies and clients around the world are trying to determine whether marketing efforts should be led by traditional or digital agencies. In this era that Forrester has dubbed the Adaptive Marketing Era, significant confusion has arisen for marketers as to the roles of different agencies.

“After working with multiple agencies for the past few years, we wanted to find one strategic partner to handle all of our needs,” says Trisha Tyrrell, Senior Manager, Business Development, Canadian Direct. “Ultimately with the way that lines have blurred between traditional and digital advertising, we needed an agency capable of executing any kind of integrated campaign across any platform.”

Canadian Direct’s goals for Noise are to develop strategic marketing initiatives and increase brand awareness. While online tactics are a priority, the agency will be responsible for all creative execution including TV, print and radio.

The announcement is notable as it is rare to see digital agencies offered the opportunity to lead. According to Sean Corcoran, a Senior Analyst with Forrester “most interactive marketers don't trust their traditional agencies with digital work and yet most don't believe their interactive agencies are ready to lead yet either.”

One of Noise’s strengths is its mix of in-house talent. The agency’s creative team is lead by co-creative directors Brock Ellis and Michael Milardo. Ellis’ background lies in digital, while Milardo’s experience was gained at tier one advertising agencies such as Rethink, TBWA, BBDO Berlin, and Ogilvy Copenhagen.

“I have a great deal of comfort with Noise’s ability to deliver offline work,” continues Tyrrell. “Given their team and their track record with us, I am confident that they will deliver. In six years of working with them, they have never failed me.”

“This opportunity proves what we have been preaching for years: ultimately all work is digital,” says Trevor Carr, President and CEO, Noise. “Our clients are now giving us more opportunities to lead their entire account. It is a vote of confidence in the model that we have created and the teams that we have built in Vancouver and Toronto.”

Noise puts fun into Tic Tac Revolution

Hollie Shaw, Financial Post

Noise Digital has launched the Tic Tac Small Fun Revolution for Ferrero Canada, a new digital brand campaign aimed at engaging 18-to-29-year-olds through sharing videos and creating and uploading creations that feature Tic Tacs or Tic Tac boxes. "A 'small fun revolution' is a way of seeing the world," says Trevor Carr, president and chief executive of Noise Digital. "Fun is everywhere -- you just need to look for it. The campaign provides the platform to share some fun with each other." It involves the site www.tictacsmallfun.ca,a branded YouTube channel, a Facebook fan page, Twitter, display advertising, two iPhone applications and social media. Noise also conducted a cross-country search to find artists to become Tic Tac Ambassadors, resulting in a video of a musician performing with Tic Tacs and their cases and a stop-motion film of two Tic Tac cases playing tennis.

It’s not just a mint, it’s a Small Fun Tic Tac Revolution

Noise Digital leads integrated campaign for Ferrero Brands

Toronto, ON and Vancouver, BC; May 12, 2010 – Ferrero Canada has launched the Tic Tac Small Fun Revolution, a fully integrated digital brand campaign for its Tic Tac brand. The national campaign was created by Noise Digital and is part of a brand re-launch that is seeking to engage youth aged 18 to 29.

“A Small Fun Revolution is a way of seeing the world. Fun is everywhere; you just need to look for it. It may not change your life, but it’ll definitely make it a bit more fun," says Trevor Carr, President & CEO, Noise Digital. “The campaign provides the platform to share some fun with each other.”

The campaign is designed to engage the target audience with ‘small fun’ moments whether that is by sharing videos created by Tic Tac Ambassadors; creating and uploading their own content using Tic Tacs or their iconic boxes; or by downloading one of two iPhone games.

The campaign asks visitors to join the Small Fun Revolution by submitting their own Tic Tac creation for a chance to win 24 hours of small fun with $5,000. The first 1,000 submissions also receive a Tic Tac T-shirt.

“The goal of the campaign was to re-engage consumers with the Tic Tac brand by tapping into an existing online fan base and sharing that sense of fun,” continues Carr. “By turning Tic Tacs into a whimsical piece of entertainment content, we are activating social media network platforms and encouraging users to share content with their networks.”

The Tic Tac Small Fun Revolution is supported across numerous digital platforms: www.tictacsmallfun.ca, a branded YouTube channel, a Facebook fan page, Twitter, display advertising, two iPhone applications, SEO and a comprehensive social media outreach program.

Another facet of the campaign is a unique partnership with Much Music. There is a co-branded microsite on muchmusic.com, VJ mentions, a Much On Demand takeover day (May 10th) and three ten-second branded promo commercials.

“The engagement strategy that Noise developed is innovative in that we are not depending on a large paid media component,” says Gabriel Verkade, Sr. Brand Manager for Tic Tac. “Rather than spend large amounts of media dollars on driving traffic to a brand site, we understand that consumers want to engage with quality content on their own terms, meaning when they want and, more importantly, where they want. So we focused on creating engaging content and making it available on a variety of social media network platforms."

To seed the site with content that could easily be shared across multiple social media platforms, Noise conducted a Canada-wide search to find artists to become Tic Tac Ambassadors. The result was three videos: one that features a musician performing using only Tic Tacs and their cases; a stop-motion film of two Tic Tac cases playing tennis; and a mousetrap-style, domino-effect featuring the mints.

The campaign launched on April 26th and has already gained significant traction. The two iPhone games, Small Fun Hockey and ‘Mazing have been downloaded 9,000 times in more than 90 countries. Despite the fact that paid media didn’t start running until May 10th, there have already been 10,000 social media mentions.

Noise Digital to market Nature's Path snacks

Hollie Shaw
Published: Friday, April 09, 2010

Nature's Path Organic Foods has selected Noise Digital to market its organic granola bars after a North American agency review. "We did our due diligence in looking at agencies and Noise was by far the best integrated agency demonstrating examples of truly customized marketing solutions," said Rosy Atwal, senior brand manager at Nature's Path. Nature's Path, a privately held, family owned business based in Richmond, B.C., makes breakfast foods and snacks sold in 40 countries. Noise will be responsible for promoting a trial of Nature's Path organic granola bars in key North American markets. The campaign will include online and retail promotions at retail. As lead agency, Noise will will be responsible for strategy, media planning and buying, and campaign execution.

Credit unions court an elusive customer: Youth

Long-term future of the B.C. financial institutions depends on their ability to balance an aging customer base with younger members now

Curt Cherewayko
Business in Vancouver

BC credit unions admit that they have had a hard time attracting youth.

While one in three British Columbians, or 1.7 million, are credit union members, only about 9% of them are in the 18- to 29-year-old demographic.

B.C. credit unions are making a concerted marketing push this year to court that demographic and bring some balance to their somewhat lopsided and largely aging customer base.

“If we don’t focus on this age group, then our membership will slowly dwindle and we won’t have the critical mass to be able to continue doing business,” said Kelly McNeill-Sproxton, marketing manager for Vancity.

Central 1 Credit Union, the umbrella organization that represents credit unions in B.C., is leading the charge with a $2 million marketing campaign that will target 18-to-29-year-olds – who loosely fit into the generation Y demographic – across a number of advertising mediums.

In the next couple years, Central 1’s goal is to double its percentage of 18- to-29- year-old members.

According to Martin Reed, Central 1’s director of marketing and creative services, credit unions have traditionally targeted consumers above the age 30.

At that age, he said, consumers begin to more seriously consider financial products and services like mortgages, loans and RRSPs.

To read more, click here.

Credit Unions of BC Looks Online for Next Generation of Members

Noise Digital to lead online strategy for credit union cooperative advertising program

Vancouver, BC; March 23, 2010 – Central 1 Credit Union, the central financial facility and trade association for the B.C. and Ontario credit union systems, has engaged Noise Digital as its digital agency of record for the Cooperative Advertising Program for the Credit Unions of BC.

The agency has been tasked with building awareness of the credit union brand amongst 18 to 29-year-olds in British Columbia. Noise won the account after a competitive bid process that began before Christmas.

“This is an exciting assignment for us because the Credit Unions of BC are interested in exploring how Digital can anchor their overall marketing direction, not just sit at the fringe,” says Mark Nishiguchi, Managing Partner, Noise Digital. “Given the target audience, it makes complete sense to focus the strategy online.”

While BC credit unions have a solid membership base of 1.7 million – more than 1 in 3 British Columbians – research has shown that many in the next generation of potential members are unaware of credit unions and how they differ from banks. The long-term goal of the program is to educate this target market on the benefits of credit unions and grow the membership base. Many in the target audience share the values of the credit union system: honesty, community, trust and loyalty.

“We were looking for a partner who had demonstrated success in delivering a digital strategy to this market,” says Martin Reed, Director, Marketing & Creative Services, Central 1. “What pleased us about Noise is that they really challenged our idea of what Digital could be and they are stretching us in a new direction.”

The agency’s first assignment will be a fall marketing campaign. While still in the early stages of development, the campaign will focus on a new community program and will likely include social media, OOH, and a variety of online and offline activation tactics. The campaign will include new TV spots created by Wasserman + Partners Advertising.

CTV launches desktop widget

by Gariné Tcholakian

Noise Digital is bringing the after-show water cooler session to the desktop. CTV show fans who want to rave and rant about last night's eps now have a social community online in which to do it, through the new CTV Primetime Widget.

The desktop app, created by Vancouver-based Noise Digital (the first it's developed for any Canadian broadcaster), is integrated with Facebook extensions and delivers CTV-branded content with customizable features, like format choice for content delivery - text-only, text and image, video, flash or animation - and a dynamic skin that can be changed according to show preference. Once viewers identify their picks, the widget filters content so they only receive relevant info, like new ep reminders, links to previews or full online eps on CTV.ca. To help keep them engaged, show trivia, games, contests and special interviews are also part of the CTV-branded menu. Viewers can also track upcoming eps through the widget's program sched and sign up for reminders or promo and contest news updates.

Through the Facebook app, viewers can connect with friends around CTV content, create fan pages for their favourite shows or participate in quizzes and polls. (And in true Facebook style, they'll also receive updates on their friends' quiz scores and can find out which shows friends are watching.)

"By creating a widget and integrating it into Facebook, we created a platform that pushes real-time information to people where they spend a lot of their time," Noise Digital president and CEO Trevor Carr tells MiC. "The widget creates a richer TV-viewing experience because it bridges the gap between the broadcast and online experience," he adds.

Noise Digital Creates Desktop Experience for CTV Viewers

Digital ad agency creates CTV widget and Facebook application

Vancouver, BC; July 15, 2009 – Noise Digital has officially unveiled their latest digital initiative, the CTV Primetime widget: a desktop application with integrated Facebook extensions. The application will push CTV-branded content onto users’ desktops allowing them to stay connected to their favourite CTV shows and characters.

“These digital applications create a much richer TV-viewing experience for fans,” said Trevor Carr, President & CEO, Noise Digital. “Users can access content that is relevant to them and connect with their friends around their favourite shows. This initiative creates the forum for ‘water cooler talk’ for the next generation of TV viewers.”

Noise has designed the desktop widget with a dynamic skin that can be changed based on the show users’ identify, providing access to special interviews, show previews, games, and access to catch-up episodes viewable online at ctv.ca.

The widget can deliver content in various forms including text, text and image, video, flash and animation. To help viewers track their favourite shows, the application offers program schedules for upcoming episodes. There is also a feature that permits users to sign up for reminders and receive news about special promotions or contests. The widget is available online at www.ctv.ca/primetimewidget.

The Facebook application provides users with the ability to connect with their friends around CTV’s content. Users are given the opportunity to create fan pages for their favourite shows and participate in quizzes and polls. It also allows users to receive updates on their friends’ quiz scores and view which shows their friends are watching.

“The CTV Primetime Widget demonstrates CTV’s steadfast commitment to reaching our audience on their terms,” said Stephan Argent, CTV’s Vice-President, Digital Media. “As an industry leader, we recognize the importance of using evolving technologies to engage with consumers in new and innovative ways.”

About Noise Digital:
Noise is a digital advertising agency providing online marketing solutions for leading national and global brands. The company’s success stems from its belief in truly integrated marketing strategy, cutting edge technology and breakthrough creative design. Noise was founded in 1998 and has offices in Vancouver and Toronto. Its clients include: Nokia, adidas, Sony PlayStation, Johnson & Johnson, Ferrero Brands, Canadian Direct Insurance, Maple Pictures and CTV. www.noisedigital.com

Single, male, undead

Susan Krashinsky

Globe and Mail, Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009 05:56PM EDT

"That’s one thing about zombie fans: they take it really seriously. So it had to look really good. We couldn’t just take a picture and put a hole in somebody’s head." - Mark Nishiguchi, managing partner at Vancouver-based firm Noise Digital

There are some markets Lavalife and eHarmony just don’t serve. Zombies, for example. The undead need love too. Luckily, Zombie Singles fills that void. The site includes listings from Gorey Gretta, “a female zombie seeking a male for casual feeding.” and Guhhhhhh, who likes “blocked exits” and “people buffet,” and dislikes “the hunger.” In truth, Zombie Singles is the award-winning brainchild of Noise Digital, which created the faux dating site last year to advertise zombie-themed mobile phone-based video game Resident Evil Degeneration. The campaign won bronze in the cyber competition at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes this week. A particularly attractive candidate is Kiki from Indonesia, whose “fiends” list is positively gutted – er, glutted. We hope he finds love. The bar scene can be such a meat market.

***FLASH***Cannes hands Canada four more Lions

by Carey Toane and Mary Maddever
Media In Canada

If zombies make your heart pound in a good way, then the news of Canada's only Cyber Lion will set you a-flutter. Vancouver-based Noise Digital won Canada's only Bronze Lion for "Zombie Singles," an undead dating site to build buzz for Resident Evil: Degeneration on the Nokia N-Gage platform.

Dubbed the "official dating site of the walking dead," ZombieSingles.com invites lonely brain-cravers to upload photos to be "zombified," browse and rate other gruesome profiles or let the matchmaker take a crack at finding love for them.

"It was a big hit," says Canadian jury member Stephane Charier, ECD at Taxi Montreal. "We laughed, had so much fun. Juries are human - just because of that I think it inspired a lot of love."

"Zombie Singles" was the only win out of the eight entries shortlisted yesterday, and Charier notes that the Canadian work submitted "was very good, but Cannes is like the Olympics...We're still doing safe work, still doing microsites, not involving the consumer enough."

The jury awarded three Grand Prix, the only category required to do so, for the top Website and Interactive Campaigns, Online Advertising and Other Interactive Digital Media, and Viral Advertising. Entries dropped more than 500 from last year, with a total of 2,205 entries this year. Out of the 208 shortlisted, 80 went home with a medal.

All three Grand Prix went beyond the limits of the typical microsite, involving consumers in real-world conversations and collaborating with other kinds of marketing and media says Cyber jury president Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer of Ogilvy, North America. "Digital no longer lives in a vacuum, it's part of larger campaigns."

Noise Expands to Toronto

Vancouver, BC; March 3, 2009 – Vancouver-based digital advertising agency Noise Digital announced today its expansion to Toronto. The agency is bucking current economic trends by adding resources to service its growing client base.

“Our business is expanding exponentially,” says Trevor Carr, President & CEO, Noise Digital. “We are seeing a fundamental change in the agency model. Our clients are tasking us, not just with digital execution, but with overall campaign strategy. And to meet these growing needs we are delighted to now have a fixed presence in Ontario.”

The company has hired Peter Pinfold as VP Client Services to open Noise Toronto. Pinfold was a former Noise client at Unilever and worked with the agency on the award-winning Degree Fashionista Challenge, which was awarded Best in Show at the 2006 W³ Awards.

In the newly created role of VP Client Services, Pinfold will be responsible for business development and account direction. While Noise’s creative resources will still be housed in Vancouver, Pinfold will work closely with key accounts including adidas and Sony PlayStation.

“Peter was the natural choice to be our anchor in Toronto,” adds Carr. “He brings more than ten years of marketing and sales experience on both the client and agency sides.”

Pinfold has worked on a portfolio of CPG brands and has won numerous national and international awards for media innovation and brand activation, including Best of Show at the 2006 and 2007 Promo Awards. While at Unilever, Peter and the extended Dove team were recognized by Strategy Magazine as marketers of the year in 2004. In 2005, Peter led the much talked about Degree Poker Championship and the lauded Dove documentary, Beauty Quest.

“Digital brand experiences are increasingly becoming an indispensable part of the marketing mix. A shared brand building philosophy and a passion for innovation is what first attracted me to Noise, ” says Pinfold. “This is a great opportunity to take my experience and help build engaging programs for our clients as well as contribute to the depth of marketing know-how at Noise”.

Noise Zombifies Online Dating

Vancouver, BC; February 17, 2009 – For those who haven’t been able to find love the traditional way, Noise Digital has created Zombie Singles. The zombie-themed online dating site was designed to promote Resident Evil: Degeneration, the recently released title for Nokia’s mobile gaming platform, N-Gage.

Through Zombie Singles users can interact by creating a pseudo-dating profile in hopes of finding their zombie match. They can also collect friends, or “fiends”, and rate other pictures based on their “Bore or Gore” factor. The site leverages the The Zombifier, a custom flash application that allows users to “zombify” themselves, transforming an ordinary picture into a zombie-style avatar with wounds, incisions, blood spots, and more.

The site incorporates facets of standard social media and dating sites with specialized interactive elements for zombie fans. For example, Zombie Singles users can ‘bite’ other zombies if they want more attention. Throughout the site, users are exposed to promotions and ads for the latest Resident Evil/N-Gage title and can opt-in to the N-Gage Community.

“Resident Evil is already a highly successful media franchise. Our goal was to harness users’ interest in the franchise, capture their attention, and build an online community,” says Mark Nishiguchi, Managing Partner, Noise Digital. “To make our marketing efforts more engaging, we used Easter eggs to link to N-Gage and Resident Evil contests and promotions around the site. Users either answer trivia questions or hunt around the site for clues in order to win prizes.”

Site users are automatically entered to win a trip for two to Japan, exclusive passes to the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, a meeting with Resident Evil game designers from Capcom Japan, and two Nokia N96 devices. The contest will be judged by N-Gage and Capcom officials and the winner will be chosen based on their “Bore or Gore” rating, the quality of their photo, and the number of fiends that they accumulate.

“We had to overcome a number of challenges with this campaign, including the fact that we had no media support,” continues Nishiguchi. “As a result, we leveraged a compelling contest prize and are drawing traffic from other sources such as Resident Evil, zombie, and horror fan forum communities. We are also tying into existing social media such as Facebook, Digg, and Delicious to allow users to download and share their profile pictures.”

Noise Turns up the Heat at Nokia With Sauna Talk

Vancouver, BC; November 4, 2008 – Noise Digital announced today the launch of Sauna Talk, a global B2B campaign for Nokia. The campaign was created to connect with game developers and raise industry awareness and understanding of N-Gage, Nokia’s global gaming software platform.

“Ultimately we needed to find a way to communicate with the game developer community to discuss a wide range of topics, some of which can be quite technical,” says Mark Nishiguchi, Managing Partner, Noise Digital. “We felt that we could use humour to both engage and inform our target audience. The result was Sauna Talk.”

Sauna Talk is a cheeky, multi-faceted campaign that plays off Nokia’s Finnish heritage. It spoofs a tech talk show and features light, yet informative and specific topics with humorous elements that generally make fun of the ‘not so technical’ host: Arnold Faber.

The campaign includes a microsite and video interview segments designed to leverage social networks, fan pages and content-sharing platforms such as Ovi and Facebook to help spread awareness of the brand and N-Gage platform. The campaign is housed online at www.insider.n-gage.com/saunatalk/.

The campaign also features the “Sauna Talk Trivia Challenge”, a contest which is hosted on gamasutra.com, a key industry web site. Through the contest, entrants can win Sauna Talk merchandise by answering skill-testing questions about the platform. The contest is a way for Nokia to further inform its target audience.

“This campaign has given us a platform to communicate in a new way with our audience,” says Nick Malaperiman, Head of Global Publisher and Industry Marketing. “One of its best features is its flexibility - over time it will allow us to discuss a broad range of topics.”

The campaign was previewed in August in Leipzig, Germany at the GCDC (GC Developers Conference) where pilot videos played throughout the N-Gage booth and conference hall. The videos starred actual Nokia employees and discussed topics such as: community gaming, the N-Gage platform and the Nokia Research partners.

“We were overwhelmed by the initial response to the campaign,” continues Nishiguchi. “We created a lot of industry chatter and people really responded to the tongue-in-cheek interview format. They also appreciated that we were using actual Nokia employees.”

Sauna Talk is the latest campaign that has arisen from Noise’s long-standing relationship Nokia. Noise has been responsible for game branding, interactive strategy, international title marketing, design and development, and other unique global projects for N-Gage since 2002.