Case study – Your kids and advertising

Here is an overview of the brochure I develop with my team at Egzakt for public information from the government. The objective is to inform parents about the effect of advertising on kids and to gain awareness about the law that prohibits advertising for children under 13 years old.


Client: Consumer Protection Office and Éditions Protégez-Vous

Brief: Inform parents in a fun, accessible and efficient way.

Award: Achievement in Consumer Education - National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA), for the “quality of the text and graphic design, the relevance of the message and the usefulness of information for the public.”

The brochure has already been distributed in all Quebec regions, with 275 000 copies in 2009. Reprints are on their way.

Case Study - Newspaper Signature

Here is the case study of the line I found with my team at Egzakt for the Quebec daily newspaper Le Devoir.



Client: Le Devoir (www.ledevoir.com)
An independent daily newspaper, without ideology or politic affiliation. Values: freedom, equality, solidarity, integrity. Mission: to inform readers and nourish societal reflection.

New positioning

What is Le Devoir?
1. It’s a must: This is the only independent newspaper in Quebec and it has the deepest contents.
2. It’s accessible: Thinking is not boring. Everyone can read and enjoy Le Devoir.

What can we do with Le Devoir?
3. Think. Go beyond facts.
4. Share. Exchange point of view and ideas, discuss, react.

New signature: Libre de penser
(It is quite hard to translate a good French line… let’s say: Free to think. Libre de penser is close to the French noun libre-penseur, a person that refuses religious compliance or dogmatic influence.)

Le Devoir is free to think.
Readers are free to think, or aspire to be free to think.


Some more details in French...


Positionnement
INCONTOURNABLE : Grâce à son indépendance et 
à la qualité de ses contenus.
ACCESSIBLE : Ce n’est pas parce que l’on réfléchit que c’est ennuyeux. Tout le monde peut lire et apprécier Le Devoir.
RÉFLÉCHIR : Au-delà des informations et des faits.
ÉCHANGER : Partager des idées, des points de vue, discuter, réagir.

SignatureLibre de penser

• Le Devoir l’est.
• Le lecteur l’est ou veut l’être.
Il est content de lire une publication qui l’est.
• Référence directe à l’indépendance de la publication.
• Une invitation au lecteur à aller au-delà des faits, 
à proscrire l’endoctrinement.
• Accessibilité : l’exercice de penser librement est accessible à tous; il est encore plus facile avec Le Devoir.
• Empowerment : le lecteur peut s’approprier les idées,
les contenus, les faire siens, réfléchir, réagir, y prendre plaisir.

Quelques jours après le lancement du nouveau site web et de la signature, nous recevons ce courriel de Jean-Jacques Stréliski, maître-penseur de la publicité au Québec :

Mon coup de coeur va à cette nouvelle signature « Libre de penser » que j'aurais humblement aimé trouver moi-même, donc mes félicitations à l'auteur de cette trouvaille. Si vraie et si simple à la fois, comme toutes les bonnes signatures.

Case study - Fashionable green

Here is the case study of the concept I develop with my team at Egzakt for the "green" campaign of the local shopping center.
Client: Les Rivières Shopping Center (www.lesrivieres.com)
Brief: Find a way to show ecological or “green” initiatives.
Insight: Use the purpose of the shopping center – fashion – to communicate the green side of center.


Baseline: Vert, une couleur qui ne passe pas de mode = Green, a colour that will never goes out of style.
Visual: Created by David Gélinas, Art Director at Egzakt.
Award: Silver Maxi at the International Council of Shopping Centers Awards.

See full campain and case study in French.

SaveTheWords.org

Being a copywriter, you probably assumed that I love words. Well, you guessed right. Of course, French is my first love, but I am very found of English as well. I discovered this website developed by Oxford Dictionaries, and encourage you to go once in a while.

Which words need to be saved? Old words, wise words, those that has lost their meaning in our lives.

Look around, click, discover, learn, have fun. Some words are even asking for your attention. If you fall in love, you can adopt a word and make a pledge to use it as much as you can.

How can you do “spread the word”? Use it as a name for your pet, or a nickname for your partner; play it at your next Scrabble game; get a tattoo with the word; draw a graffiti, what else?

Mine: hymnicide. Killing of hymns through alteration. So be careful if you sign around me!

Music - My voice is officially recorded!

I’ve been signing in choirs for more than a decade now. My alma mater group, Vocalys, has finally released its first CD. I was lucky enough to do the recording just before leaving for Europe.

Vocalys is a small choir ensemble (usually 16 voices), specialized in baroque and a cappella music, but always exploring all kinds of repertoire, from Gregorian to Modern.

Our first CD is a new piece of music inspired by ancestral ones. The composer, Marc Langis, is more known for going around the world as one of Celine Dion’s musician, but is also a talented composer. A wrote a cycle of 20 canticles based on Christmas Liturgy.

Excellent for a contemplative moment. Excerpts are available online.