I created this campaign with Big House Communications for Bicycle Sports Pacific, a local Vancouver cycle retailer, using a combination of strong aspirational brand advertising and singular retail product-focused ads.
Positioning
BSP was not the most high-performance bike shop in the city. Nor did they have the lowest prices. They did have a strong selection of bikes and gear, targeted to the mid-range commuter and family sport rider. So what was the common element among these targets? A love of biking. And a vision of a more bike-friendly world. 'We know what riders want' was born.
We used regular bi-weekly positioning in the Georgia Straight (Vancouver's entertainment weekly) alternating between brand and product ads. Each product ad focused on a singular offering, giving us excellent opportunities for co-op advertising dollars. The brand ads were designed to also be offered as giveaway posters, encouraging store traffic.
The 'Bridge' ad above was one of our most popular, appearing as it did at the height of a controversy over bike lanes on the bridge itself. The fact that the client's flagship store was at the end of that bridge made it even more appropriate.
This is just one example of how smaller retailers can brand big.
©2006 Lorne Craig – Unicycle Creative – 604 831 2432 – lorne@unicyclecreative.com