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$20M ad campaign biggest ever for Canon Australia
Key Points:
- First time the whole-of-company brand communications coordinated under one brand positioning: "Advanced Simplicity"
- Brand strategy based on extensive research and planning since 2001
- Brand brought to life through integrated advertising, PR, channel, and internal communications
- $20M locally developed national brand advertising campaign is Canon's biggest ever
Canon Australia has launched a major brand repositioning campaign to communicate the new brand position of "Advanced Simplicity" in the Australian and New Zealand markets. The roll out includes a $20 million advertising component that is Canon Australia's largest ever ad campaign, officially beginning on 30 March to run nationally across TV, cinema, print and outdoor media until December.
"At Canon, we believe there's no point to new technology if it doesn't make life simpler. Canon's advanced technology makes it easy for users to get the best results, whatever their level of expertise. We wanted to build this meaning into our brand. In its purest form this philosophy is best expressed by the phrase 'Advanced Simplicity'," said Allan Corder, General Manager, Consumer Imaging Products Group and chair of the Canon Australia Brand Committee.
"Ranked consistently in the top three of US research patent recipients for the last eleven years, we are one of the world's most innovative companies. Through our brand positioning, and our communication of it, we will make that innovation a visible part of Canon's personality," said Mr Corder.
The importance of the brand
Canon is one of the world's most recognisable brands*. The core brand strengths of quality, reliability and trust are true of Canon all around the world. The development of the Canon brand in Oceania is aiming to build on these strengths and ultimately increase outright consumer preference for the Canon brand in Australia.
"Brands are now more critical than ever. People's time is limited, so they are looking for easy reasons to separate companies' product offerings - for both personal and business purchases. Brands are no longer just about being a big, trusted logo. It is the brand meaning that conveys reasons for preferring one offering over another - in technology categories this is a combination of emotional and rational reasons," explained Mr Corder.
Development of the brand strategy
While the ad campaign will be very visible to the public through the high reach and frequency across mass media, the brand strategy encompasses far more than advertising, and began more than a year ago with rigorous world class strategic analysis and planning.
Clear understanding of the current perception of Canon was key to the development of the new strategy. This was achieved through extensive research of consumers, opinion leaders and workshops with experts in imaging technologies.
"We conducted research in Australia and New Zealand to ensure that we had a good understanding of how our brand was perceived in the local market. We then matched that against where our business was going and how this could be communicated to the market. It was very important that we chose a brand proposition that would be realistically accepted by consumers and work across our breadth of offerings," said Mr Corder.
"Canon's brand recognition is very strong and we do not want to lose the association with quality, reliability and innovation. But we do want to be sure that our brand perception moves with our customers and our business in the innovative digital imaging age. 'Advanced Simplicity' captures the concept that Canon develops innovative technologies that are smart and easy to use," said Mr Corder.
The new positioning sits perfectly with Canon Australia's corporate vision and mission. The brand will be brought to life throughout all aspects of the organisation, including customer interaction, company infrastructure, and staff communications, particularly Canon's internal "Vision, Mission, Values" programme.
$20M advertising campaign
The advertising creative is being executed by Leo Burnett with the media strategy and buying handled by Starcom. The supporting public relations program is being developed and implemented by Hill & Knowlton.
The creative for the $20 million national print, TV and cinema brand advertising campaign uses four hero products representing the breadth of Canon's product range from a digital video camera, digital still camera, Bubble Jet printer and business multi-function device. Further print campaigns have been developed for retail and specialist media and will be backed up by supporting point of sale creative. Every step of the purchase cycle and every customer contact point with Canon will be coordinated under the concept, look and feel of Advanced Simplicity.
The national campaign breaks in March and will run continuously until December.
*Canon was ranked 43rd in BusinessWeek's second annual "Best Global Brands" ranking of the world's 100 most valuable brands, featured in the 5-12 August 2002 issue of the weekly business magazine.
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