A Strategic Mix of Video and Digital Marketing for Canadian Horticultural Council

We’ve done a number of social marketing projects, but this one is unique and fascinating. Our job is to convince Canadian government organizations AND Canadian citizens that the international farm workers who come to our country every year and work in the fields and greenhouses are a positive force – a necessary and essential force – that puts food on the table for 35 million of us every day. If you ask most of the workers, they love what they do, and the benefits for them are immeasurable, especially when it comes to providing for their families and communities back home.

It would be simple to just do a longform video about this topic, but the Council wants real impact: so we are building a robust digital media campaign and custom-building video assets to make that campaign work. Our goal? Show what’s REALLY going on “down on the farm” and tell a genuine and engaging set of small stories about this important work force.

Just popping over to India for a bit…

Our work with UNICEF has taken us all around the world, and this month, Jeff Lively and intrepid UNICEF staff producer Benita Hansraj travelled to New Delhi, India, on a film shoot covering UNICEF programs on maternal and child health issues, focused specifically on systematic eradication of diarrhea, which kills hundreds of thousands of children a year. These shoots are strenuous, sometimes dangerous, always challenging, and they require stamina, flexibility, and great kit. Just watching Jeff prepare for this adventure reminded us that it takes much more than just creative chops to pull off these highly emotional, logistically complex shoots.

Dusting off a great campaign…

Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is one of our favourite clients because they really understand the connection between great creative and audience retention! Several years ago we produced a set of 8 “tip clips” – fifteen-second mini-commercials destined, at that time, for new media and theatre audiences. Spin forward half a dozen years, and they asked us to re-imagine the spots using the “Floyd family” we’d created for three different campaigns. 

Watch the video here

Syrian Refugees

Sometimes a project teaches you funamental lessons about life - and this is one of them. Over the past four months, through the production of a film for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, we’ve had the singular honour of getting to know three Syrian families, all part of Canada’s GAR (government-assisted regugee) program. While each family’s story is different, there’s a common thread - humility, a sense of wonder about how friendly and inviting Canadians are, and a sense of hope and optimism about what Canada can offer these wonderful men, women and children. The experience has made us all stop and reflect on how fortunate we are, and how fragile and how crucial Canada’s culture is.

Tim Pitsiulak

One of the things we’ve learned over 25 years of working in the Canadian north is that it is as unforgiving and challenging an environment as it is beautiful. This was driven home to us two days before Christmas as we learned that our friend, Tim Pitsiulak, had succumbed to a severe respiratory illness in Cape Dorset, NU, unable to be airlifted out to an appropriate medical care facility because of storms that made it impossible for the medevac to take place. We worked with Tim on the creation of the Kenojuak Ashevak Cultural Centre and Print Shop film. We got to know a dedicated father and husband with a 5,000 watt smile: a brave hunter, an immensely talented artist, and probably the staunchest San Jose Sharks fan who ever lived.

Peace, Tim.  

Watch the video here