2023 Winner

SilverBest use of Technology

Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation
"24 Hours of Care"
McCann
The Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation (PCCF) was started in 2020 to raise funds and awareness for Canada’s over 8 million family caregivers. The cause itself is one without significant charitable support in Canada, and as much as the Foundation had low awareness, so too did the cause itself.

In 2022, PCCF wanted to create a public service announcement that would bring the struggle of these underserved Canadians to light. Research showed us that Canadians had sympathy for Caregivers, but they just weren't thinking about the behind the scenes struggle that happens 24hrs a day, 7 days a week.

They realized showcasing a true 24-hour experience was critical to shining a light on the mundane, tough, and joyous moments of caregiving so they created a 24-hour film showing a day in the life of caregivers. To bring this experience to the user’s attention, they would need a highly engaging media plan that would both bring the creative concept and the foundation’s goals to light.

The initial integrated plan extended to TV, social, and online video but as those all contained length restrictions when working with a 24-hour video, they were presented with the challenge of how best to show the film to a broader Canadian audience with a propensity for charitable giving.

With almost half of its readers stating they have donated to a Canadian organization in the past 12 months, The Globe and Mail was the perfect partner to create a first-of-its-kind 24-hour live stream takeover.

Users would arrive on the site and be able to view the film in progress at the top of the homepage, syncing the time of day to the time of day in the film. This allowed users to participate in a live screening by simply arriving on the site, and clicking through to the film landing page where they could scrub through the entire 24 hours.

To increase the impact of the long-form video, the media campaign used segmented clips of the film based on time of day and targeted users during the corresponding time. This meant users who saw an ad during the morning would see a clip of the caregivers waking up and starting their day. This experiential aspect allowed us to not only use the powerful content of the film to pique their interest, but also make the very setting in time relatable.

Using scheduled targeting and a mix of niche (those with caregiving experience) and broad targeting, they were able to use each platform’s ad scheduling capabilities to optimize toward driving the most relevant traffic to the film’s microsite.

To further encourage engagement with the campaign message, they implemented QR codes on OOH placements, allowing the public to check in on the caregivers in the film whenever and wherever they happen to be. This was also time-synced to the real-world time the user scanned the code.

Working with the Globe and Mail, their teams created the first-of-its-kind livestream takeover that played the full 24-hour film over the course of the day on the G&M homepage. This took a standard ad placement and turned it into a virtual screening room, giving viewers the opportunity to attend the “premiere” of the film and empathize with the people in the film as they see the incredible dedication and perseverance of caregivers. No easy feat, the livestream needed to be custom built in cooperation between the agency and G&M creative teams, producing over more than 80 creative ad units to
accompany the live film.

The campaign was an immediate success, with media picking up on its unique nature and featuring it on their newscasts, including on Global News Morning and CTV’s The Social. This was in addition to the national coverage as part of the PSA agreement.

This extended the reach of the campaign and helped us see a 64% increase in awareness of PCCF, and a 53% increase in awareness of the issue of caregiving compared to the period prior to the campaign. Coupled with the more than 60 million impressions (600,000 generated from the livestream takeover in one day alone) and 90,000 sessions on the microsite, this campaign helped bring the immeasurable strength of caregivers to the attention of Canadians at large.

Credits

Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation
24 Hours of Care
Agency Personnel List
McCann Canada
Chief Creative Officer – Josh Stein
VP Creative Director – Gail Pak
Creative Director – Mike Shuman
Senior Copywriter – Aaron Peever
Senior Art Director – Kyle Shields
VP Director Production – Jacqueline Bellmore
Senior Producer – Laurie Filgiano
Chief Strategy Officer – AJ Jones
Senior Strategist – Liam Brown
Junior Strategist – Kira Segal-Pillemer
VP Director of Business Leadership – Patrick O’Donovan
Group Account Director – Sarah Lostracco
Account Executive – Keerat Kohli
McCann Media
VP Media Director – Julie Evans
Digital Media Manager – Brian Offredi
Tam-Tam\TBWA (French Adaptation)
Antoine Bécotte – Creative Director
Olivier Charlebois Campbell – French Copywriter
Samuel Moisan – French Copywriter
Josée Fréchette - Producer
Josée Canuel - Group Account Director
Mary Montsenigos - Senior Account Executive
Production Personnel List:
Production
Skin & Bones
Production Executive Producer – Joan Bell & Liane Thomas
Director – Jennifer Roberts
Line Producer – Maegan McGregor
Director of Photography – Stuart Cameron
AC: Nick Petrie & Patrick Holmes
Sound: Rachel McLean, Aram Kouyoumdjian & Gus Harris
Editorial
Smile & Wave
Post Executive Producer - Shenny Jaffer
Broadcast Editor - Robin Haman
24hr Editor - Mariam Famy
Assistant Editors: April Etmanski & Emma Todd
Online Artist - Jon Garofalo & Austin Blackmore
Colourist - Rita Ushakova
Music
Ta2
Music Executive Producer - Christine Leslie
Music Director - Jeff Lurie
Casting
Groundglass Casting
Casting Director - Andrew Deiters
Website
Performance Art
Ian Mackenzie – Chief Creative Officer
Amanda Horsford - Program Director
Michelle McAdams - Senior Integrated Producer
Jess Willis - Group Creative Director
Ben Playford - Creative Director
Thiago Santarem - Senior Visual Designer
Tomas Soares - Art Director
Arnaud Icard - Group Director, Product Developer
Liviu Balan - VP, Technology & Development