Telus’ latest campaign seeks to drive brand affinity and consideration, while inspiring Canadians to join its scholarship program, launched last year.

The “Better Than Imagined” campaign tells the story of three Telus scholarship recipients and how they envision their future. It emphasizes that Canadians can participate in the program by purchasing an entry for the new Telus Friendly Future Foundation Sweepstakes, which awards the winner a family trip to Hawaii.

“By elevating and driving awareness of the Telus Student Bursary, this provides a unique opportunity to not only effectively communicate our social purpose and increase our brand reputation scores, but also helps us advance our purpose by inviting Canadians to join us in supporting youth,” Lisa Mack, VP of brand at Telus, tells strategy.

Unlike the previous campaign for its scholarship program, Mack says that this time Telus is focusing on recipients’ stories and the good they do in their communities in order to create an emotional connection with the public and establish a distinct brand identity. The team also wanted to go beyond the message and motivate Canadians to take action, so they thought that a sweepstakes would be the perfect way to complement those stories.

“The creative [for the sweepstakes] focuses on promoting the chance to win a trip to Hawaii, with the messaging and visuals being reflective of that. Visually, we wanted to showcase vibrant action shots of activities the winner could experience in Hawaii,” Mack adds.

The campaign is in line with Telus’ positioning, which over the past years has focused on highlighting the company as a trusted brand committed to generating positive social change. To reinforce that positioning even further, the company decided to launch a new brand platform in 2023 called “Let’s make the future friendly.”

“Today, as we round out 2024 with ‘Better Than Imagined’ and ‘Friendly Future Sweepstakes,’ these campaigns are a natural extension of our brand promise, but with a renewed focus on driving consideration for Telus,” Mack says.

The media plan includes social, content marketing, influencer relations, sponsored content and earned media. The brand is also highlighting other students through owned, earned and paid channels. Mack says the plan was developed specifically as a digital-centric spend, with an emphasis on programmatic video. “The strategy enabled us to invest in innovative platforms, placements and formats that are not only relevant to our target audience but deeply aligned to our social purpose messaging.”

In addition to social takes on Pinterest and TikTok, the media mix includes GoodLoop – a media platform where a donation to Telus Friendly Future Foundation is unlocked every time the customer views the campaign – as well as Amazon ads, with buy-in on Fire TV where Amazon will make a donation to Telus Foundation for every hour of selected video aired on the platform (up to a pre-determined amount).

To drive awareness and consideration of the sweepstakes, Telus is using digital tactics such as IAB banners. There are also 30-second videos across OLV and Connected TV, as well as OOH advertising in Ontario and Quebec.

The&Partnership and Connected Studio were behind the creative, while Carat handled media buying, with We Are Social for organic social content and National Public Relations for strategy and PR support.