Dervla Kelly says Corus Entertainment wants to own the lifestyle space in Canada. Its traditional media properties are well-positioned to find those audiences on television (think Slice and W Network), but the SVP of marketing knows that without serious social media expertise, the media co. doesn’t stand a chance. Judging from its work in 2019, however, Corus is a serious contender for that crown. From the creation of its So.da social content studio four years ago to the acquisition of lifestyle creator network Kin this year, Corus has built a strong social offering for brands across categories. The 40-person So.da team has shown particular promise. It’s crafted social content for Marshall’s, Cracker Barrel, Knorr and RBC, leveraging audiences from Corus’s HGTV, Food Network and Slice specialty channels. But it was a 360-degree campaign for John Frieda – the second in as many years for the haircare brand – that led the MIAs jury to award Corus with a Media Company of the Year title. Lori Bianchi, senior brand manager at Kao Corporation who oversees John Frieda, says she relies on Corus to make the brand more relevant in the spaces where beauty and entertainment overlap. Specifically, she wants the brand to have a bigger presence on Instagram and to drive consideration among millennial women with “demanding” hair. Bianchi says Corus offered a strategy that “was truly 360 degrees and that has only improved with the addition of the talent at So.da.” The lynchpin of Corus’s 2019 program was ET Canada host Cheryl Hickey. As brand ambassador, she appeared on premium retail signage in Shoppers Drug Mart, in 30-second spots on Slice and W Network, and hosted consumer contest segments on ET Canada. But the campaign’s real strength was on social. So.da’s studio team created online videos showing how Hickey (a longtime John Frieda user) uses the brand’s products to create some of her signature looks. Four DIY videos showing off different styles and products were released starting in February, with the kickoff video earning more than 61,000 views on YouTube. Across ET Canada, John Frieda and Shoppers’ social channels, the content helped drive 155% follower growth for the brand and 2.6 million engagements. Overall, the work drew 42 million impressions with a reach of 24 million. Adding some extra shine on that accomplishment, John Frieda saw a 4% dollar volume growth during the campaign, which it says is double the standard growth rate of its segment and the brand’s strongest dollar share gain in two years. Bianchi is now taking the partnership into a third year with plans to expand the campaign’s social footprint yet again with Kin content creators. Corus’s social teams are “expanding exponentially,” Kelly says. And having already delivered six billion views for its social content last year, the company has also partnered with Twitter to create original content for the platform. Stella Artois is one of first brands to take advantage of the new partnership. Looking ahead, Corus is also working with Complex, a youth-focused American digital network that is home to high-profile online programming such as Hot Ones (which has 7.5 million YouTube subs) and Sneaker Shopping (17 million views across 171 million videos). And as it manages Complex’s Canadian social networks, Corus is also developing Canadian versions of the digital network’s programming. Kelly will have to wait to see if Corus does indeed top the lifestyle market in Canada. But with this kind of momentum behind it, it’s well on its way.