The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation has selected Rethink as its lead strategic and creative agency following a closed review to help it launch what it calls “the largest healthcare campaign in Canadian history.”

Rethink will assist PMCF in launching a new brand platform that will allow it to grow donations, not only across Canada and the GTA, but globally.

“We recognize the importance of what we’re about to embark on. In order to have the outcome that we need, one thing that we can’t have happen is have people tune out,” says Aaron Starkman, Rethink’s managing partner, creative. He adds how Rethink really needs to make the PMCF “stand out” as part of this campaign, and “have people take notice of all the good” the foundation is doing. “Every day, they’re helping conquer cancer,” Starkman says.

Rethink has begun work on this assignment; Starkman couldn’t specify when exactly its first work would be in market, but it is planned for later this year.

“We know what we’re trying to help the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation accomplish. And cancer affects everybody, directly [and] indirectly,” he says. “This account is going to be a key part of the fabric of our agency. We’re really looking forward to doing some good in helping make a big difference.”

Though PMCF has worked with various agencies on campaigns throughout the years, a spokesperson confirmed that it did not have a creative agency of record working in this capacity prior to this selection. Michael Burns, president and CEO of PMCF, says the hospital’s current goal for its upcoming fundraising push is to “offer Future Care Now” and advance treatment for the one in two Canadians that will face cancer in their lifetime.

“That means accelerating research in early cancer detection and developing even more effective and more targeted treatments,” he says. “Our findings, which we share with cancer researchers around the world, will benefit patients not only in Canada, but in every country.”

This assignment comes roughly seven months after Alyssa Huggins joined the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation as its new VP of marketing, coming over from Pizza Pizza, where she held the same title.