Who: Rogers, with Theo for strategy, creative and media, and Common Good for production and VFX (directed by Jamie Webster).
What: “OM5G,” a new advertising campaign for the telco’s 5G wireless network. The French campaign replaces the English OMG colloquialism with “Magique.”
When & Where: The campaign is live now in French and English, running across TV, online/social and out-of-home.
Why: This is the first full-on branding campaign for Rogers wireless since Theo was created to take over the business last summer. The focus is on the telco’s quickly expanding 5G network, and the dramatic improvement it brings to the wireless user experience.
Rogers asked Theo to communicate the human benefits of its 5G network. “The brand has always been grounded in that purpose of helping Canadians make more possible… What Rogers is interested in, is how that proposition becomes more human-centric,” said Sanya Grujicic, executive creative director at Theo. “So it’s not about techs and specs. It is ‘How does technology make more possible for my everyday life?’ The tenor, tone and approach is all centred on making technology more human-centric for Canadians.”
How: The anchor spot shows three ways a woman’s daily routine is enhanced by her Rogers 5G network: downloading music, gaming in the back of a car, and streaming a highlight reel goal by Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid. The 5G network is represented by a Rogers-red ribbon flowing alongside the woman. The ad closes with the super “OM5G,” and the “Make More Possible” tagline.
Rogers asked Theo to present the “wonder of 5G,” said executive creative director Mike Lee. “We wanted a spot that looked, sounded and felt like the wonder of 5G, and for us that meant something that felt cinematic.”
Rather than hockey, the French ad shows one of Canada’s rising tennis stars, Felix Auger-Aliassime. (The Montreal Canadiens may be popular in Quebec, but they’re also sponsored by Rogers’ primary rival, Bell.)
Any concerns about evoking the F-word? “Yes, there was some discussion about it, but everybody just recognized it as a really sticky piece of language,” said Lee. “The bigger worry was that someone else might use it before us.”
The music: The English ad uses Desert Belle’s “Doin’ My Thing.” “One of our amazing team members found the track and we loved the spirit of it—it had a great genre-less feel to it, and great pace,” said Grujicic. “We needed that tempo and it had that in spades,” added Lee. The French language ad uses “Emmène-Moi,” by Marie Pierre Arthur.
Beyond wireless: Rogers and Theo also have a humorous campaign in market that focuses on how Rogers high-speed Ignite internet service can relieve some of the stress that can develop in a family household with slow internet (see it below.)
How has Theo changed things for Rogers: Theo was created to be a truly integrated agency, including media, said Grujicic. “[It was about] bringing media inside the tent and making sure all of our creative collaborations were both data-driven and focused on performance based media, but also [with] creative use of media.”
Projects start with the media and strategy teams working together on the client brief. “Any media insights drive any creative insights. Any strategic insights drive media recommendations, and all of our storytelling from our creative people use the best practices of each platform that we recommend from a media perspective.” Working together in such an integrated fashion is intended to produce performance-based media campaigns while also generating brand love.
And we quote: “Theo really feels like a natural extension of our team. Working with a single fully integrated agency team that is fully embedded in Rogers has enabled us to bring to life breakthrough creative through the entire customer journey.” —Nancy Thomas, vice-president, brand at Rogers.
