After a series of previous lives – as a university professor, best-selling author, and brand manager – Noel took the road less travelled and launched a full-service boutique ad agency at the very edge of the continent.
“This is the farthest east you can go in North America without getting wet,” he was quoted at the time.
Lots of people thought this was nuts. “This is nuts,” they said. Thankfully, a few people understood the metaphor for differentiation. “We get it,” said the people who signed on. “Differentiation and creativity are powerful business tools.”
Today, more than 40 years later, Target is the longest-running independent agency in Canada. It is the inaugural winner of Canada’s Small Agency of the Year. Its work has been recognized at virtually every major award show – from Gold Lions at Cannes to the London International and the One show – including multiple CASSIE Gold awards and the CASSIES Grand Prix (for advertising effectiveness).
Following grad studies at Queens, and a few years in new product and brand management, Noel spent 10 years as a tenured university Professor in graduate and undergraduate programmes. He abandoned dogma for a much more effective blending of education and entertainment. He co-authored for McGraw-Hill what became Canada’s best-selling university-level advertising textbook. He still prefers Levi’s over academic gowns, and hasn’t worn a necktie since 1975.
Over the years, O’Dea has helped create, rejuvenate, position and reposition, and build hundreds of brands – from airlines and travel to banking and universities, retail, tech, and food (including, yes, sausages).
But when it comes to building successful brands and award-winning campaigns, Target is definitely no sausage factory.
Noel avoids so-called ‘Best Practices’ like the plague. “Advertising best practices create ads like sausages, uniform and predictable, a virtual sea of sameness. That’s the very antithesis of the surprise, memorability, and differentiation essential for effective advertising. An undifferentiated brand is not a brand – it’s a commodity, lacking competitive advantage. And the love and loyalty of its customers.”
Noel is perhaps best known for the much-emulated Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism work over the past 20 years. Still faithful to the strategic brand positioning and creative brand personality which he developed in 2005, ‘Find Yourself’ has become the most-awarded and the most-successful destination branding and tourism advertising campaign in North America.
In today’s overcommunicated world, where people don’t know who or what to believe, ‘Find Yourself’ reflects O’Dea’s core philosophy and mantra: speak with one brand voice; focus on the outcome (not the inputs); and don’t pretend the brand is something that it can never be.
As the ads say, Newfoundland is as far from Disneyland as you can get. “We can’t help but see things differently here,” O’Dea says. “This place gives us a very unique perspective on how to size-up a business or brand problem. And this cultural lens helps us to discover fresh strategic and creative solutions which are, well, fresh and unexpected.”
Creativity is a powerful business tool, and Target’s location has been a definite competitive advantage on that front. “Newfoundland is overflowing with creativity – storytellers, writers, artists, musicians, and a quick wit and quirky sense of humour. Our culture inspires and colours our ideas and creative work. A natural honesty and humanity permeates every molecule of this place. I love creating advertising that doesn’t look or feel like advertising.”
The road less travelled reflects Noel’s career as an educator, marketer, brand architect, and strategic and creative leader. A natural-born storyteller from a land of master storytellers, he insists on baking emotion and humanity into everything Target creates. “I’ve always been committed to doing emotional work that makes people ‘feel’ something, that moves them, that evokes laughter or love. That people remember.”
Perhaps that’s the reason Target is one of only 20 advertising agencies in Canada to ever win a Gold Lion in the 60-odd-year history of Cannes.
“We still don’t report to no one but ourselves, and our clients,” says O’Dea. “And, of course, our moms.”