The Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC) is trying to energize the next generation of accountants with an upbeat campaign predominantly geared toward university students.

The campaign centerpiece is a 30-second launch video that eschews the professionals in suits approach one might associate with accounting. Instead, it combines up-tempo music with a mix of live-action footage and animations, like a skateboarding dog and dancing astronaut. All of it is meant to represent the transformative effect of earning a CPA designation.

High-energy digital video, OOH and social assets each show how an individual’s life can improve when they receive a CPA, culminating with the line that plays with both language and math: “You to the power of CPA.”

Kerri Brkich, VP, external affairs and communications at CPABC, tells strategy that the high energy positioning is to drive interest in being a chartered professional accountant, after collaborative workshops done in conjunction with agency 123W.

“To be honest, demand for accountants is through the roof,” Brkich says, with the need for professional services actually increasing during the pandemic. “We always focus quite a bit on recruitment, and raise awareness of the designation and the kinds of careers you can have with a CPA.”

CPABC typically runs a recruitment campaign right around when university students are beginning their fall semesters. University students are the most likely group to enroll in a CPA program, but CPABC is also trying to increase its efforts in high schools, Brkich says, to reach students as they are choosing their future academic pursuits and ensuring they get the right prerequisites for CPA programs.

For its prospect market, many have it set in their minds that being a CPA means you work at a big accounting firm, Brkich says, but 80% of those who have earned the designation work in other corporate environments. Besides breaking from the stuffy suit stereotype of accountants, the goal of the campaign is also to show the full breadth of professional opportunities available to CPAs.

The other focus is employers, as they train members and it tries to show the value of having a CPA on staff for a company.

CPABC began working with 123w as its lead creative agency at the beginning of the year. Campaign spend is in line with past efforts, and it kept its provincial marketing budget consistent during the pandemic.

The campaign runs through March across B.C., with 123w also handling the media buy. The campaign is appearing in connected TV, OTT, display, social and out of home, as well as its first executions on TikTok.