2012-08-27
Canada’s largest classified advertising site has launched an integrated marketing campaign with new TV spots building on its existing Web videos and leveraging popular social media networks.
Kijiji kicked off the campaign this month in British Columbia with a TV ad described as “cheap and cheerful” by Kijiji Canada marketing head Bart Molenda.
The campaign is supplemented by integration on Kijiji’s social channels, web-mercials and online banner advertising.
The commercial is actually Kijiji’s fourth TV ad, an evolution from Erica and Eric ads.
That campaign generated more than 10 million video views and was cited among the most viewed YouTube videos in 2011.
Consumers buying and selling to each other is the foundation of Kijiji’s online business, and the ads reinforce those roots.
It cheekily shows the company’s Facebook page being hijacked by comical animated characters, like a crusty old curling stone that gathers dust atop a packed basement bookcase.
With more than half of all the live ads on the site (nearly three million) posted in the Buy & Sell category, the marketing strategy shines a spotlight on the driving “engine” behind Kijiji’s: free, local, simple and fun.
That’s the “cheap and cheerful” approach Molenda described, and one he says will remain part of the Kijiji brand.
“Yes, we’re going to stay that way,” Molenda said in conversation with Mediacaster Magazine. “We want to capitalize on that long-term loyalty that or customers show, and their expectations and impressions are critical to us.”
He does note that certain vertical markets – autos and real estate, for example – may end up with a premium service and feel as the site’s services develop further.
He also quantified the buy and sell site’s popularity in Canada, noting that it is some “four or five times larger” than other classified properties.
But the company is not that dominant in B.C. and the Vancouver market, he adds, so the multi-platform media campaign there has extra significance and value for the company.
“We are a pretty analytics-intensive shop” he notes, and so the in-house marketing team will carefully assess traffic patterns and visitor behaviours across categories, and monitor any lift that results during the month long campaign.
The TV spot is positioned to roll out across the country, with English and French assets readied to support the campaign.
Molenda described how the ad plays on the theme Kijiji first introduced in Germany last year, and a campaign built around a fictional character named ‘Eric’.
The success of that campaign led marketers here to try a similar approach; ‘Erica’ has been cast here in Canada, and the original spot has been re-edited and dubbed.
The media buy is being supported by Toronto-based agency Denneboom and creative was developed by Cloudraker, with its LoveCat digital studio, out of Montreal.
