Niagara Parents General Awareness Campaign

Award-Winning Public Health Communications

The Challenge

Niagara Region Public Health’s Niagara Parents program offers extensive free resources for families — but awareness was uneven. Single parents, and single fathers in particular, either didn’t know the support existed or didn’t see themselves reflected in it. The brief was clear: break through that invisibility, challenge the perception that these services weren’t “for them,” and drive meaningful program enrollment.

The Strategy

Co-leading the campaign alongside the NRPH Communications Consultant, we grounded our approach in a simple truth: raising a child takes a village — and for many single parents, that village is missing.

We repositioned Niagara Parents not as a government program, but as a teammate.

Campaign Hook:

Raising a kid takes a team. We’re on yours.

This single line did the heavy lifting — warm but direct, inclusive without being clinical, and immediately relevant to the isolation many single parents feel.

Creative Direction

The visual language was a deliberate departure from traditional public health aesthetics. Rather than sterile, institutional imagery, we built a vibrant, high-contrast colour palette anchored by authentic photography of millennial parents and children in real, unposed moments.

The goal was trust through recognition — if a single father scrolling through his phone sees himself in the ad, the message lands before he even reads it.

Campaign Execution

A true omni-channel rollout, designed to meet parents where they already spend their time:

• Out-of-Home (OOH): High-visibility bus shelter placements across the Niagara Region for sustained, passive awareness.
• Cinema: Lobby takeover advertising in a local theatre to capture engaged, attentive audiences in a family-relevant context.
• Social Media: Targeted digital ads reaching younger parents across platforms with scroll-stopping creative.
• Spotify: A dedicated ad campaign to reach parents on the go — commuting, working, and parenting.

Results & Recognition

🏅 CPRS Hamilton Gold Pinnacle Award — Recognized for excellence in communications planning and execution.

✅ Brand Launch: Successfully introduced the refreshed Niagara Parents visual identity at scale across all channels.

✅ Targeted Reach: Achieved measurable visibility gains within the single-parent demographic, with a notable increase in awareness among fathers — the campaign’s primary underserved audience.