OMAC

taking the initiative

When the Out of Home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC) approached us they wanted to prove that traditional out of home advertising works successfully in conjunction with social media. Enter the Holiday Initiative, a clever little social experiment we dreamed up to prove this point. Out of home surfaces, armed with snappy headlines and QR codes, directed participants to Facebook and a dedicated microsite in order to collect votes and data. The campaign ran in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Support for the initiative poured in and people offered countless suggestions for what to do with a gained day – now if only the petition can make the government agree.

a partner for kate: an agency’s search for an intern art director

no art directors were consulted in the making of this video.

Environmental Defence

make up your mind when you make up your face

Environmental Defence is raising awareness of toxic heavy metals, like arsenic and lead, still found in cosmetics in Canada. With this film, Try to Look Pretty without Poisoning Yourself, we spurred consumers to take action on this issue by putting pressure on the Canadian federal government to enact stricter labeling and manufacturing laws for cosmetic products, much like in Europe. To raise awareness of this serious issue, we took an unconventional approach to a PSA: humour.

Commissionaires

a salute to returning soldiers

Commissionaires has an indispensable social mandate – to employ returning soldiers – yet they are virtually unknown. To raise awareness for this mandate we created ‘Thanks’, a highly emotional spot that resonated well beyond our limited media buy.

Bombardier

flying high on the wings of change

To create an identity for entirely new and radical aircraft, collaboration was key.  From working with other creative agencies, completion teams, interior design teams, and trade show designers, the many working parts all came together to produce a cohesive and distinctive brand identity.

Lucky Penny

good friends, good luck, great wine

Good wine. Good friends. Good luck. To launch Lucky Penny Wine in Vancouver, Open created the aptly named Share the Luck Facebook app. The app enabled participants to send messages of luck to friends and family. These messages became not only mini billboards on friends’ newsfeeds, but they appeared as live billboards in downtown Vancouver the next day. By inviting people to write our billboards, we created the first campaign to successfully integrate Facebook and traditional outdoor advertising. With Vancouver awash in good luck billboards, our new friends helped us beat our aggressive sales numbers by 6%, proving that good friends, and good luck really do go hand in hand.

NDP

history in the making

Canadians were fed up with a lack of transparency in Ottawa, the infighting, partisan politics, and the secrecy of the Harper government.

At Open we wanted to make a difference and influence political history.  So, for the NDP we built a campaign based on Trust – trust in the party, trust in the people of this country and, of course, trust in Jack.

The resulting campaign played an instrumental role in making the NDP the Official Opposition.

Newad

Newad came to Open as a media company and left a creative company

After 15 years Newad has greatly evolved from the washroom poster company they started as. Working in close collaboration, we unlocked a simple truth: Newad isn’t a media company, they are a creative company.

To reflect this creative spirit, Open redesigned all elements of their brand – from their website, to their business cards, and even their actual office space.

Frontier Networks

a new Frontier

Working with the new brand promise of Professionally Friendly, we created a comprehensive design system as well as a unique vocabulary that influenced not only how Frontier Networks defined itself, but how it behaved in a sea of parity competitors.