Booze and cars typically shouldn’t mix. But after winning new accounts with Porsche Cars Canada and Wolf Blass wines, they’re making 2009 a good year for Toronto agency Yield.
Yield pitched Porsche late last year, winning a five-agency review in November. As contract negations proceeded, the agency began doing work on a project basis in January. With a fresh contract now signed, the agency is handling all Canadian marketing for the German luxury car maker and its dealers.
“We are going to be exploring new channels and targeting a slightly different type of customer,” said Brad Usherwood, head of strategy at Yield. “It will bridge the gap between the typical customer profile, which is all about performance, to the person who wants the performance and the luxury.”
Instead of crafting an overall brand position for Porsche, Yield will be creating specific executions for each model of car, tailoring each to the cars’ individual strengths-such as performance, design and luxury.
“The Porsche brand is remarkable for its diversity,” said Jasmin Rawlinson, Porsche’s director of marketing. “While at the core there is a focus on high performance and the best engineering, our products cover a broad range of vehicle types and prices.”
Some of the project work is already in-market in automotive magazines. Rawlinson said Yield’s first work as AOR is scheduled to hit the market next month. Most of the media buy will be newspaper, magazine and online media, supported by direct mail, in-store materials, as well as “other channels” for which Usherwood could not provide details.
“A Porsche customer relies heavily on word of mouth versus other car manufacturers, so we need to leverage that wherever we can,” he said. GenesisVizeum will partner with Yield for media planning and buying, while Republik will handle French communications.
Following the Porsche review, Yield was hired for project work by Wolf Blass, a wine brand owned by Australia’s Foster’s Wine Estates.
The label is reducing its prices and running a further limited-time reduction offer through Ontario liquor retailer LCBO.
“They felt this was a good opportunity to begin reenergizing the brand after several years hiatus [from advertising],” said Yield president Ted Nation.
A radio campaign focusing on Toronto and Ottawa launched Monday, with GenesisVizeum overseeing the media planning and buying.
