United Way has launched a new holiday campaign, aimed at Atlantic Canada and informed by the rising cost of living for many in the Maritime provinces.

The non-profit released a video this week that shows what the holidays look like for people who have suddenly found themselves struggling to get by. The creative was inspired by difficulties many are facing from Canada’s inflation rate, rising rent costs and a lack of affordable housing, as well as the rising costs of some everyday goods. 

“We wanted to challenge assumptions people have about poverty, and compel those who can to give,” says United Way Halifax communications and marketing manager Sarah White. 

“A lot of people can visibly see homelessness or panhandlers, and those are elements of poverty that are important to address. But there’s also poverty that happens behind closed doors, where people are making difficult decisions about spending when the cost of everything is going up.”

The minute-long video, titled “The Pie,” sees a woman doing holiday baking at home and shows the hurdles she faces just to make an apple pie for her family. The campaign is meant to raise awareness among people who can donate to support United Way’s work to alleviate poverty, with programs focused on food security, safe and secure housing, mental health support, and connecting people to resources.

“We hope lots of people see the video, whether on television, social media, or it being shared through another means, and we hope it challenges their assumptions and generates conversation,” White says.

The video follows United Way’s holiday campaign last year, “The Doorbell.” Agency Wunder developed this year’s creative, working with production partners Accomplice and Alter Ego. After the response to “The Doorbell” came back positive, Wunder creative director Stephen Flynn says they decided to build a foundation for a strategy to make impactful annual TV spots for the holidays “that pack a gut punch and highlight the biggest community issues in any given year.”

“We’re hoping it gets to the point where the community can essentially expect the United Way holiday video every year as a reminder of the things we need to support so everyone in our community can live well,” Flynn says.

“But the video is only half of the puzzle, we also need to supplement this with a bunch more strong tactical static ads and touch points to really move the needle on donations.”

The total ad spend for the campaign was roughly $25,000, Flynn says, and was supplemented with a mix of in-kind media across the Maritime provinces through digital advertisements, print and OOH. This is an increase from ad spends as low as $7,000 locally for last year’s “The Doorbell” video, for a campaign more reliant on organic social and earned media coverage.