Turning the table on Alanna Nathanson

Alanna Nathanson, Co-CEO & CCO at G&G Advertising and one of our 2023 Advertising judges, shared a favourite campaign of hers and her G&G team - the “Goose” campaign for .CA by Cira (The Canadian Internet Registration Authority.)

Challenge: Canadian small business owners automatically default to .COM, but the truth is, Canadians prefer shopping on Canadian websites. In fact, 88% of Canadians prefer a .CA when supporting local businesses. In a low-interest category, we needed to let small business owners understand the big stakes of their URL choice and choose .CA.

Solution: We released the Canadian Goose. While a proud symbol of our country, geese are also complete jerks.  Aggressive and pushy, our goose became the anti-mascot who won’t take no for an answer, especially when it comes to choosing .CA for your small business domain.

Behind the scenes: We used a live goose called Wawa, who grew up with her trusted wrangler and was able to follow simple commands. Was the goose a diva? A little bit. Did she ask for red M&M’s only? Maybe. We had to use a minimal crew and keep extremely quiet on set. But she was a super goose star. We also used an animatronic goose for close-up shots.

Results: The campaign was hugely successful, with an 8% increase in purchase intent. Total .CA registrations jumped by 37,743, while .COMs fell by 9, 930 over the same period. Our campaign stood out and made an impact, thanks to the power of humour, insight, and a lot of “goositude.” I don’t know about you, but I’d listen to that goose.

Same. Listen to the Goose!