Claim to fame

It's quite an about-face to shift media gears from promoting the cool strut of Johnnie Walker's Striding Man to the boisterous bounce of Tony the Tiger. But Brian Chan's devotion to connecting consumers with brands in innovative ways is evident in both, starkly different campaigns.

In partnership with Corus Television's YTV, this April Kellogg's Frosted Flakes launched a four-phase program focused on inspiring kids to get outside, get active and have fun through sport.

Several challenges presented themselves with the campaign, says Chan, strategy supervisor at SMG, not the least of which was trying to get kids to play outside while targeting them where they spend most of their time - in front of the television and computer. The plan was to motivate kids to get active through an online sports portal that would give them some cool, sporty ideas.

"One of the things that we discovered when we were doing our plans for digital was that there were not really any high-traffic kids sports portals out there," says Chan. So for the program they built their own hub called "Show Your Stripes League."

Through each sports phase in the year-round campaign (hockey, soccer, basketball and the final one to be chosen by the kids) the site hosts video, games and printable instructions on new activities they can try. Each weekend a young sports reporter, selected by Chan, is on the scene with new challenges that viewers can attempt too. The segments are broadcast on YTV's Saturday morning cartoon block The Crunch, as well as online.

"This is one of those areas where we got to play so many different roles," says Chan. And wearing different hats - from event planner to casting panelist to "brand custodian" - is what he likes about the job. "I think that's what makes the industry exciting, but it's also something clients and other stakeholders need to realize as well. It's a lot of extra work," says Chan.

Chan has a background in theatre production and visual arts. He had a chance to apply some of his natural creativity last Chinese New Year on the award-winning Johnnie Walker campaign that promoted the Diageo-owned scotch within three ethnic Chinese sub-groups.

With the goal to increase Johnnie Walker consumption among Chinese-Canadian scotch drinkers - a demo described as well-educated, ambitious and driven by family values - Chan helped turn a valued Chinese tradition into an advertising medium just six weeks after the briefing.

In Toronto's Pacific Mall, North America's largest indoor Asian shopping centre, consumers were directed by Cantonese and Mandarin-speaking models to world-renowned calligrapher Guan Sui Sheng, who created a unique Johnnie Walker-branded Fai Cheun - greeting posters with gold or black characters on red paper that are posted on walls and doors in homes and businesses. Those consumers then willingly put up the ads in their own homes, offices and businesses.