Discovery Channel readies campaign for Canada's Worst Drivers
By Adnews Staff
Discovery Channel will begin a new consumer marketing campaign on Sept. 26 to promote a new series called "Canada's Worst Drivers." The show will follow eight people, nominated as bad drivers by friends or family members, as they demonstrate their driving skills in a controlled environment for a panel of experts. The campaign will include outdoor, print, radio, television and cinema ads. The print and outdoor ads depict caution beacons, one-way signs and traffic pylons, along with the tagline "Watch Out for Canada's Worst Driver." The outdoor creative will run on approximately 600 transit shelters in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, plus four billboards in Toronto. The print ads will run in the Toronto Star, the Toronto Sun, the Vancouver Province, the Vancouver Sun, the Calgary Herald and the Ottawa Citizen, as well as in the commuter papers Metro and Dose. The 30-second television commercial featuring footage of bad driving from the series. It will air on the Discovery Channel, CTV and other CTV specialty channels. A modified version of the ad will run in Famous Players theatres in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa. Radio ads will also air in these cities. Two 10-second versions of the ad will run on the CTV video display in downtown Toronto. In Toronto, the campaign will also include a street component. A number of Co-Op taxi cabs will be wrapped with decals to mimic the appearance of accident damage. The decals also display the program name and the Discover Channel logo. According to CTV, this will be the first time this type of advertising has been used in Toronto, due to a new bylaw regarding taxi advertising. The wraps were handled by Taxi Art Media. In addition, tow-trucks from Abrams Towing will pull damaged vehicles through high-traffic areas of the city during the campaign. These cars will also display the series name and channel logo. The campaign was produced in-house by the CTV creative services department and on-air promotions group.