The Nova Scotia Career Development Association (NSCDA) is looking to connect with a generation of binge watchers with a fresh campaign aimed at pushing people to pursue a career in the career development field – jobs that can include a life coach, school counsellor, social worker, disability support worker and more.

Called “Timestamps,” the OOH effort was developed with creative partner Wunder and communicates with a younger generation in a language they understand – co-opting a popular social media trend of sharing the exact times someone can skip to in a particular TV show or movie to receive a sort of coded message.

“On TikTok or other socials, some people will just drop a timestamp and tell their audience, ‘Trust me, you’ll get it when you get there,'” says Stephen Flynn, creative director at the agency. “I saw that someone asked a person to go to prom using a timestamp from a show. People enjoy that withholding of a key piece of information – this is almost like sending someone on a treasure hunt. It’s an itch that needs to be scratched.”

In the case of the NSCDA, however, the focus is less on inviting someone to prom and more on inviting them to pursue a career that Flynn says “never had a clear way to be marketed.”

“When we first started working with the NSCDA, we were building web tools and simplifying some of the moving parts for the organization,” he says. “Even on the first read, it’s a bit meta trying to sell people on a career that’s all about helping others find their careers, but it’s a good career to have in itself.”

By scouring popular TV programs like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Superstore and Young Sheldon for career-oriented scenes or quotations and plastering them on OOH billboards and TSAs that also include the NSCDA’s information, the association hopes to introduce “a younger and more diverse audience” to “a solid career that offers meaningful work,” says Flynn.

“The makeup of the profession is completely organic: they haven’t had any specific targets, it has just grown organically over the decades,” he says. “This is the first marketing campaign where they have actually wanted to actively recruit people into the profession, which offers a sliding scale of opportunities.”

The campaign will run for two months, primarily in the Halifax Regional Municipality. However, there is the potential it may be extended and run in markets including Sydney, N.S. and rural areas. Along with the strategy and creative, Wunder also handled the buy for the campaign.