Sensis has ditched humour in favour of testimonials from real clients to demonstrate the value offered by Yellow Pages, in a campaign that launches this weekend.
Print ads and 45-second TVCs launch on Sunday (10 May) as the value component of a two-phase advertising drive.
“Using testimonials recognises that in the current economic environment businesses need to know their marketing and advertising is working for them and driving sales and growth,” explained Sensis group manager, brand marketing communications Geraldine Davys.
The TVC features 23 real business owners from across Australia who advertise with Yellow Pages.
“No actors were used in the TVC,” said Davys. “Research was conducted with 600 lapsed and current advertisers to ensure that confidence and trust was going to come out of a testimonial-driven campaign.”
The ads, developed by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, see numbers painted by business owners on a large yellow canvass, as well as spoken testimonials.
“Business owners chose their own numbers to paint which have a real significance to their individual businesses,” Davys said. “Some show how many calls their Yellow Pages advertisement has generated, others show revenue and work volumes generated by customers who found them in Yellow Pages.”
As the closing dates for the Yellow Pages directory in each market nears, the campaign will move into a second phase which includes a cut-down 15-second TVC reminding advertisers to book their ads in the Yellow Pages.
Radio, press and direct marketing will also be included in the latter stage.
Yellow Pages lifted its ad spend by 12.5% in 2008 to $15.3 million, said Nielsen AIS.
Davys said Yellow Pages has a traditional approach to advertising, which would not change in the future.
“We have a significant investment in traditional media, which focuses mainly on television,” she explained. “We know it works and we will continue to be traditional in our media spend.”
Yellow Pages retains OMD for its media buying.
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