Scouts Canada is looking to showcase its role in building Canadian success stories with a new national campaign called ‘It starts with Scouts.’
With media and creative by St. John’s, Newfoundland-based Target, the campaign features images of Canadian business leaders and entertainers when they were young Scouts.
‘It starts with Scouts’ will be showcased with 22 full-page colour ads in the Globe and Mail, display ads on sites including GlobeandMail.com and a social media strategy that is still to be determined.
‘Unfortunately lots of people in the country don’t know Scouts Canada still exists, for those that do know they often have antiquated views of who we are and what we are all about,’ says Stephen Kent, chief commissioner and chair of the board of governors, Scouts Canada.
‘Our first step is to get Scouts Canada back on the radar with opinion leaders. There are Scouts Canada alumni in virtually every boardroom in the country. This campaign will speak to those people.’
Canadian celebs featured in the campaign include Tilley Endurables founder Alex Tilley and Canada AM co-host Seamus O’Regan.
Funding restraints have prevented Scouts Canada from running national campaigns in recent years, says Kent. But the first consecutive two years of growth for the organization have afforded them the opportunity to spend money promoting the organization nationally.
‘We believe this is a necessary step,’ he says. ‘This campaign is about so much more than running some ads. It is about redefining our brand promise.’
Target won the contract as the AOR/MAOR for Scouts Canada in 2010 and launched a national volunteer recruitment campaign for the organization last fall.
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