Case Study

Orange Grainy Gradient Background

Truth & Reconciliation week

CHALLENGE

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) is a non-profit ​organization in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It’s a place of learning and dialogue ​where the truths of Residential School Survivors, families and ​communities are honoured and kept safe for future generations. The ​NCTR educates Canadians on the profound injustices inflicted on First ​Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples by the forced removal of children to ​attend residential schools and widespread abuse suffered in those ​schools.


Truth and Reconciliation Week (TRW) is a 6-day national event that ​continues conversations about the truths of the Residential School system ​and its legacy on current and future generations.


The TRW ’23 theme was ‘Honouring Survivors’. BOOM was tasked with ​building awareness, driving online registration and in-person event ​attendance. To do so, we positioned NCTR as the trusted source and ​convinced Canadians (Educators and the General Population) that this 6-​day educational series was critical for advancing Truth and Reconciliation.

One obstacle was that teachers can feel uncomfortable teaching the ​history and ongoing impacts of Residential Schools out of fear of saying ​the wrong thing.


Many teachers have professed a lack confidence when speaking about ​this difficult subject. Truth be told, in recent years, many are just ​learning the truths themselves.


For both educators and the general population, settler’s guilt - a feeling ​guilt/responsibility for the actions of the ancestors - is a real thing. It ​can lead to vulnerable feelings that they don’t belong at Indigenous-led ​events, that they are not invited to join or they don’t want to say the ​wrong thing.


To break-through, we had to create messaging that educated and ​stood out from other brands. We needed to differentiate NCTR from the ​orange-shirt-sea-of-sameness. We had to ensure NCTR was seen and ​heard so Educators and Canadians knew this educational series was ​available and that the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation (the final ​day), was a must-attend, national event.


SOLUTION

We made it our mission to raise awareness of NCTRs 2023 Truth and ​Reconciliation Week through a strategic digital marketing ​communications plan designed to drive event registration and ​attendance.

The goal was multi-layered:

  • Build an online campaign for TRW and increase awareness nationally
  • Drive teacher registration for the 5-day educational series
  • Grow in-person attendance/ broadcast viewership of the NDTR main ​event, September 30th.


Strategic Planning started with Brand Discovery. Through a deep-dive ​discovery session, we established a vision and strategic plan to reach the ​eyes and ears of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Educators, and the ​general population, nation-wide.


To increase trust, awareness and ultimately registrations, we developed a ​Digital Marketing Communications Plan leveraging social media, organic ​and paid advertising, e-mail communications, and web.


Creative development included a refreshed campaign wordmark, colour ​palette, and a bold creative campaign that spoke the Truths of Survivors. ​‘Education is the heart of change’ was the key message behind the ​creative campaign. The Bentwood Box, a lasting tribute to Residential ​School Survivors, became the face of the campaign. This sacred box and ​the items in this collection, are deeply personal symbols of lived-​experience.

Quotation Mark

I would urge every Canadian to take ​time to review the register. Think about ​the children and their families. Reflect ​on why this truth must not be denied or ​diminished. And champion these truths ​in your life and community, so that ​Canada will not falter or turn back on ​the road to reconciliation.

- Stephanie Scott, executive director,

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

Orange Grainy Gradient Background

CREATIVE

RESULTS

social Media

Both paid and organic social media performed very well in ​engagement, surpassing industry benchmarks across the board.


Paid Meta

  • Target impressions were exceeded by up to 2896%
  • CTR industry benchmark (.9%) was surpassed by 254%
  • 2,840,280 Total Reach & 9,117,547 Total Impressions


Paid LinkedIn

  • Target impressions were exceeded by 446%
  • CTR industry benchmark (0.44%-0.65%) was met or surpassed ​by up to 7%
  • 61,369 Total Reach & 131,305 Total Impressions


Organic Meta

  • 394,975 total impressions
  • 10,280 unique engagements


Organic X

  • 335,905 organic impressions
  • 2,638 retweets across all content


Organic LinkedIn

  • 64,132 total impressions
  • 526 total reposts


email campaign

The Email campaign ran exceptionally well surpassing industry ​benchmarks on open and click thru rates (CTR) with Educator ​emails receiving the highest engagements.


  • Surpassed industry benchmarks with an average open rate of ​36.12% (Industry bench mark 23.42%)
  • Up to 39.76% open rate of highest performing email (#1)
  • CTR of 4.32% (double the industry average 2.9%)
  • Up to 9.9% CTR (241% above benchmark) on top performing ​emails

Web analytics

In June & August we saw a spike in web traffic correlating with ​the TRW campaign soft launch.


Peak performance climbed in September with 198,302 unique ​visits, and 345,597 total visits (up 361% from the previous ​month). Total hits reached 1.8 Million.

Educational Program Registers

Through marketing, communications, and paid media, awareness ​grew NCTRs TRW week event into the Nations most trusted source ​of truth and knowledge for those striving to advance Reconciliation ​in Canada.


Registration numbers soared upon launch totalling:


  • 21,147 Registered Educators
  • 845,880 Registered Students
Orange Grainy Gradient Background

Gen-Pop ATtendance virtual Lunch & LearNs

The 5-day virtual lunch & learn sessions were a new offering ​this year.


  • The launch of the lunch & learns was a huge success. The ​campaign drove 40,868 total attendees across the 5-days ​on Zoom and YouTube.


  • The virtual 60-minute, daily lunch & learn sessions had ​15,413 people tune-in on Zoom to hear the truth from ​Survivors.


  • All replays are available on YouTube.

September 30th Live broadcast

On the third year of the National Day for Truth and ​Reconciliation, a primetime broadcast was aired on APTN. It ​was called Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth ​and Reconciliation (Live Special). This 2-hr live broadcast ​honoured Residential School Survivors, their families, their ​communities, and the children who never made it home.


  • Total views of online sessions came in at 109,348
  • Total broadcast views and data was not available
  • CBC YouTube and Global News YouTube garnered 10,572 ​and 9,517 view respectively

BOOM INTERTRIBAL

Confidential