YAK Telecom / Long Distance
OK. A Toronto businessman and his dreams walked into our office one day and announced he was starting a phone company. No joke. But, man, he liked to talk. A lot. Hence, YAK Telecom was named and launched that very day. It started with Long Distance, .....
but soon added cell, Internet, home phone and the entire telecom gamut. With some gutsy guerrilla marketing, YAK became the biggest little phone company in Canada. YAK was also the first to offer 'no contracts’ – it still resonates strongly with consumers today.
YAK Follow-up Radio / TV
As YAK was growing, the ongoing research showed we were hitting good points. But there was a lot of resentment against big Telcos with their hidden fees, high rates, bad customer service and worst of all: multi-year contracts. YAK addressed all these issues - and again we sang about it on radio and TV. "I Can't Believe It's a Phone Company" was a grand slam out-of-the-park home run.
YAK Print
Some print samples over the years: from launch to more recent ads and promos. The creation of the cute YAK cartoon characters gave us lots of latitude and, like pretty much everything else about this company - they were well-received by consumers. Especially those with a beef against big Telcos.
TELEPERSONALS - Interactive Dating
This was the property of IMC, before the name was changed to Lavalife. I worked directly with Bruce Croxen (Dragon's Den) to develop new ad campaigns. Many people thought that these dating systems were used by sleazy/hooker/escort/loser types. And most of the advertising at the time did little to dispel these beliefs. As I studied the research and interviewed users, I realized that everyday, normal people were starting to get on board.
And I saw this as the answer: Create a new campaign with real, wonderful, regular people who met on TELEPERSONALS. We contacted users, past and present, and asked if they'd do testimonials with photos and their real names. The response was fabulous. The campaign triggered a 14% revenue jump in two months, and more than 30% over the previous year. I love it when a good plan comes together.
Telecom:
We took on the big guys and won.
YAK Launch Radio
To discount Long Distance, small Telcos have to use a dial-around number. YAK's was 10-15-945. The actual savings are huge, but we had to get consumers to remember the number easily. So we went 'Jingle all the Way'. We knew many YAK users would be New Canadians calling overseas, so we used an a capella world-beat style. And the lines lit up from Day 1.
