Cassies 2008 Cases Brand/Case: ParticipACTION

Winner: Off to a Good Start—Silver Best Insight—Silver

Client Credits: ParticipACTION Kelly Murumets, President & CEO Marianne Bernardo, VP Marketing

Elio Antunes, COO and VP Partnerships

Agency Credits: JWT David Gibb, EVP Managing Director

Monique Zarry, VP Group Head Michelle Milos, Director New Business Shelby Spigelman, Account Executive

Martin Shewchuk, EVP, Executive Creative Director Don Saynor, Creative Group Head

Jeff Wilbee, Art Director; Clair Galea, Producer Andre Lachance, General Manager - JWT Montreal

Pierre Nolin, Creative Director - JWT Montreal Caroline Joassin, Copywriter - JWT Montreal Andre Mantha, Art Director - JWT Montreal

Manon Caille, Producer - JWT Montreal Micheline Laroche - JWT Montreal

Crossover Notes: All winning cases contain lessons that cross over from one case to another. David Rutherford has been identifying these as Crossover Notes since Cassies 1997. The full set for Cassies 2008 can be downloaded from the Case Library section at www.cassies.ca Crossover Note 2. Brand Truths. Crossover Note 7. Fighting for the Same High Ground. Crossover Note 11. The Eureka Insight. Crossover Note 12. Changing the Goalposts. Crossover Note 16. When a campaign stumbles. Crossover Note 22. Humour in a Serious Category. To see creative, go to the Case Library Index and click on the additional links beside the case.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Business Results Period (Consecutive Months): October 2007 – April 2008 Start of Advertising/Communication Effort: October 1, 2007 Base Period for Comparison: n/a

Canadians face a crisis, with more than half of us considered overweight and inactive. This costs our health care system billions of dollars a year, and many Canadians their lives. With the statistics getting worse, we needed an adrenaline injection. Through renewed government funding, that injection would bring back ParticipACTION after 5 years of

dormancy. We needed to launch a fresh, bold brand – one whose voice transcended the category trappings – to inspire a nation to move more. We positioned ourselves as the national voice of physical activity to create awareness and urgency around inactivity. Our multi-media campaign targeted parents with a message they couldn’t miss: that inactive kids may get old before their time. It’s time for action. The relaunch was not easy. This case details the first six months of an integrated campaign, which cost less than $1 million in media, yet drove unprecedented results for the not-for-profit sector:

• The campaign had good recall and exceptionally strong scores for breakthrough, relevance, and main message delivery (scores in the upper 80s and 90s)

• It drove more than 50% of consumers to change their behaviour – unprecedented as such change is usually a slow and long-term process

• Website visitors grew by more than 400%, and visits per day grew from 136 to 964 • Cash sponsorships came in at over $5 million – exceeding the first year goal by 800% • We’ve been approached with over 300 potential partnership opportunities • We’ve fuelled renewed media awareness and debate to start a movement to move more

ParticipACTION is off to a good start. These last six months have set the stage for realizing the vision of making Canadians the most physically active people on Earth. SITUATION ANALYSIS a) Overall Assessment In Canada, obesity and inactivity stories have been in the media for years. “Get active” advertising is well-trodden ground – from the YMCA to “Body Break” to Nike. Yet, despite the explosion of programs and initiatives, we are in an inactivity crisis.

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Overweight and obesity rates have skyrocketed, and Canada is becoming a couch-potato nation. 59% of Canadians are considered overweight.1 Childhood obesity rates have tripled over the past 3 decades.2 91% of children/youth do not meet Canada’s guidelines for physical activity.3 63% of all Canadians are considered inactive, costing the health system $5.3 billion more than if they were active.4 With the statistics worsening, Canada needed an adrenaline boost. In 2007 Sport Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada provided funding to bring back ParticipACTION. Originally established in 1971, ParticipACTION had been lying dormant since 2001 – the only things remaining being a few boxes of files and its heritage. While it had made an impact at raising awareness of physical activity, ParticipACTION had lost its connection to Canadians. Recall of the brand had become mixed up with tactics such as “Body Break with Hal and Joanne.” It was seen as a tired, kitschy, dated organization from the 60s and 70s. Crossover Note 2. And being gone from Canada since 2001 did not help. With renewed support, a new Board of Directors, and a new President & CEO, we needed a new and improved ParticipACTION – to inspire a new generation of Canadians to move more. Crossover Note 16. And we needed to do this nationally with a budget of less than one million dollars. b) Resulting Business Objectives ParticipACTION’s operations restarted in Spring 2007. With no infrastructure in place, a large part of the first year was dedicated to building the organization from the ground up. Concurrently, these were the main business objectives for March 2007- April 2008:

1. Launch the new ParticipACTION 2. Foster a movement that inspires and supports Canadians to move more. 3. Engage funding/sponsors to achieve $600,000 in cash donations/sponsorship

c) Budget Range/Share of Voice As noted, this was under $1 million for national media, which included PR and interactive. STRATEGY & INSIGHT The biggest challenge was figuring out how to add value in the “get active” marketplace. Crossover Note 7. The messaging was a sea of sameness – with most of it falling on deaf ears. Messages of active solutions (“Walk 10,000 steps a day”) have been heard time and again – with little creative stopping power or new information to make Canadians realize that they had to take action now. It’s also crowded and confusing. And it’s competitive – with each group seeing the other as vying for Canadians’ time and money.

1 Source: Physical Activity Monitor. Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute. 2 Source: Dieticians of Canada, 2005 3 Source: Canadian Physical Activity Levels Among Youth (CANPLAY) Study 2005-2006 4 Sources: Public Health Agency of Canada; Katzmarzyk PT, Janssen I. The economic costs associated with physical inactivity and obesity in Canada: an update. Can J Appl Physiol. 2004 Feb 29(1):90-115

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What was missing was a national umbrella strategy – a way of knitting together the efforts of governments, not-for-profit organizations, provincial and local organizations, and communities. We needed an overall voice. A voice Canadians would turn to first and be motivated by. A voice that would be the trusted leader and catalyst. This voice would be the new ParticipACTION. We would shift what the brand had stood for, and flip the conventions of the category on its head. Crossover Note 12. We would not be the voice of the solution, but instead the voice of the issue. We would not be a competitive organization with other sport and activity organizations, but instead a collaborative organization. We would not author programs as in the past, but instead align with those already in place; and we would not be the leading solution provider, but instead be the leading problem identifier. We would marshal resources, coordinate efforts and drive Canadians to their local and regional organizations for solutions. While ParticipACTION’s goal was to motivate all Canadians, with a national (English and French) media budget of less than $1 million we had to narrow our focus in the first year to the target that would have the most impact. We decided on parents 30-40 with kids aged 7-12. They would influence their children’s behaviour, their parent’s behaviour, and their own lives. They would also be in the best position to influence society and advocate for changes in schools, communities, and workplaces. To connect with these parents, we would have to repackage the brand. They are smart, savvy, and forward-thinking. The success of our campaign would rest on a new spirit and dynamic for the brand. It cannot feel like a prescription or cod liver oil. We needed a new idea about physical activity – one that would be current, bold, fresh, and truthful. With this attitude in hand, we looked at how to grab attention. While there was the long-term goal to get Canadians more active, we all believed that this type of substantial change would take time. The goal of Year 1 was just to raise awareness about the inactivity issue. This would set the platform for the behavioural change that was predicted in Year 2 and beyond. How could we reach parents in a way that would make see the crisis facing their kids? Research revealed that inactive people are at a greater risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, cancers, gall bladder disease, and functional limitations. They are more likely to suffer decreased bone density, strength and energy – and impaired hormonal levels. And most eye-opening of all – this is the first generation of kids that may not outlive their parents. We realized that all the diseases and problems of inactive kids could be grouped into a bucket of issues that are usually associated with the elderly. Couple that with the fact kids may die sooner than their parents, and we had a unique insight and creative idea. Crossover Note 11. That it was time for action because:

INACTIVE KIDS MAY GET OLD BEFORE THEIR TIME

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CREATIVE EXECUTION We wanted to be bold, current, and truthful. But we did not want to anger, or frighten, or turn parents off, or make them feel guilty. As the national voice of the issue, we similarly did not want to offend our government funders, or the sport and activity organizations, or potential sponsors. We brought the idea of “inactive kids may get old before their time” to life using comedy and exaggeration. Crossover Note 22. From having tea while discussing hip replacement surgery which would make them miss summer camp to feeding the pigeons because they couldn’t play their Gameboy due to their arthritis – kids were truly getting old before their time. Each ad enhanced the urgency of the message with the tagline:

“It’s Time for Action. ParticipACTION” WEBSITE: October 1, 2008 – April 2008 The TV ads were a prominent feature of the bi-lingual website we created. As the voice of physical activity, website was to be the catalyst providing Canadians with the information and resources they needed. Its main role was not to give “ParticipACTION solutions”, but to be a portal for Canadians to find solutions provided by the numerous activity, sport, and health organizations around the country. The site gave links to articles, resources, facts, and tips provided by numerous partner organizations. And, most exciting for consumers and partners, was a searchable directory of sport/ physical activity organizations across the country that provided Canadians instant access to a solution provider right around the corner. The website communicated ParticipACTION’s positioning, leveraged the TV creative, and put us in the catalyst role that we wanted. RADIO AND TV TAGS: October 1, 2008-April 2008 Radio 15s tags and TV closed captioning leveraged the tagline and key messaging from the TV ads. TV: October 12, 2008 – April 2008 We developed 7 TV ads – 4 English and 3 French:

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ONLINE: December 2008 – April 2008 To leverage the limited budget, we went on line soon after the launch. Streaming video of the TV ads, a viral campaign on social networking sites, and 6 online banners (3 English and 3 French) communicated the message of kids getting old before their time .

Driveway Living Room Steam Room Bingo

Banc de Parc Bingo Chaise

ENGLISH TELEVISION

FRENCH TELEVISION

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MEDIA EXECUTION

The campaign ran for six months (from October 2007- April 2008) across English and French Canada, with 80% of the < $1 million total spend on TV and the remaining spend on online and radio. The campaign launched in October with a website, English and French TV, 15s Radio, and TV closed-captioning/program sponsor tags. In Ottawa, a media/PR event took place on Parliament Hill with government officials including Minister of Health Tony Clement, Secretary of State Helena Guergis, and ParticipACTION’s President and CEO Kelly Murumets. The TV campaign was a showcase of the event, and following the speeches and airing of the ads, all attendees and members of the press took part in a symbolic walk to start the movement. In December, online components (English and French banner ads and viral video postings) were added and ran concurrently with the TV, radio and website elements. BUSINESS RESULTS Results of the campaign have been extraordinary. Year 1 of the campaign was expected to only drive awareness of the inactivity crisis, but the campaign already started driving strong behavioural change. ParticipACTION has exceeded its financial goals by 800%. And the stage is set for continued growth. Business Goal #1: Launch the new ParticipACTION

• 6 in 10 people recalled the campaign • Across the campaign executions 79-89% of people recalled the new message

Business Goal #: Foster a movement that inspires and supports Canadians to move more The website was a catalyst for collaboration and communication during those 6 months:

• Number of visitors has grown from 4,000 to nearly 18,000 per month • Number of unique visitors has grown by 430% • Visits per day are up from 136 to 964 • Membership of the e-newsletter is up by 317%

A campaign effectiveness study by Angus Reid in April 2008 with the target audience and the general population showed the campaign tested exceptionally well in terms of breakthrough and relevance – with all ads delivering exceptional results:

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The study further showed that the campaign was incredibly strong in main message delivery, and drove more than 50% of consumers to change their behaviour – astounding results, as behavioural change is usually a slow and long-term process.

According to Angus Reid, “The ParticipACTION campaign has broken through, is communicative of the intended core message, and on-strategy with the desired call to action. We recommend its continued use.”

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Business Goal #3: Engage funding/sponsors to achieve $600,000 cash donations: • Secured commitments of over $5 million in cash sponsorships and donations –

exceeding the first year goal of $600,000 by more than 800% • Renewed governmental funding from Sports Canada and Public Health Agency of

Canada (PHAC) of a total of $4 million • Received numerous partnership inquiries, and secured partnerships with Coca-

Cola Canada and Weston Bakeries. The Coca-Cola Canada partnership is based on delivering a national program that will focus on getting active youth to engage inactive youth to lead more active lives.

CAUSE & EFFECT BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND RESULTS With the media budget (under $1 million) stretched across national English and French media, the resulting GRP levels were less than 65 per week - so the strength of the advertising was critical for making any impact. The advertising tracking above clearly proves the impact the campaign had on perceptions, emotions, and action of Canadians. Further to the above results, the action directly motivated by the ads took many forms:

Monthly monitoring of the website also reveals a direct correlation to the increase in usage with the launch of the advertising campaign.

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ParticipACTION also confirms a leverage effect: advertising has played a significant role in helping open doors to sponsors and securing sponsorship dollars, as well as securing buy-in to the brand from the hundreds of local and regional affiliate athletic and recreational organizations. The strength of the new face of ParticipACTION, its umbrella positioning, and its advertising campaign have contributed to the positive opinions from potential affiliates to working with ParticipACTION. Reaction to the campaign created news that continued for months, creating renewed interest and awareness in Canadians’ inactivity, and debate around the campaign idea that our kids are getting older before their time because of it. The advertising fuelled news coverage, which symbiotically fuelled interest back into the ads. The campaign helped generate over 33 million media impressions, and inspired top content on radio, TV and newspapers - including CBC, Breakfast Television, LeafsTV, Toronto Sun, and the National Post. Due to the belief in the effectiveness and impact of these ads, major media partners (e.g., Canwest, CTV, Rogers, Corus, TVA/Quebecor) have committed to air the ads pro-bono April-Aug 2008. The campaign has started a movement that is larger than itself. There is no doubt that the new ParticipACTION is off to a good start.

National Post, Nov. 2007

Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, Jan. 2008