Canada, like most Western nations, is highly developed if not over-saturated when it comes to Branded Entertainment. So many big brands, with big budgets do programming and content like this to varying effect. If anything, consumers have become cynical, and wary of a lot of this kind of messaging because it is so prevalent. Our client, Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) is a small not-for-profit that could ill-afford to play in these leagues effectively. It would've been next to impossible for us to get something to run if we were to follow the usual method of pitching an idea, and then getting approval to run. We had to go about things much differently. We decided to create web content that was loved and viewed, and use this as a lure to get mass media organisations to run our content.

Our documentary film, ‘Jeff's Day’, became a hit on YouTube garnering 150K views when we expected only 10K; highly unusual for a 6-minute piece, where 1 to 2 minutes in length is expected for this kind of success. The film was so touching, our hero so inspiring, over 190 issue-oriented blogs exposed it to their followers. Each national newspaper picked up our story, namely the Toronto Star, which has over 1m in circulation. Also, Jeff himself was asked to appear on Canada AM, the country's most-watched morning show with over 2m views in its prime time.

‘Jeff’s Day’ was a huge success for AMI. Where we expected only 10K views on YouTube, we saw 150K views—highly unusual for a video over 6 minutes in length. Additionally, the film was picked up by over 190 issue-oriented blogs and spread amongst their subsequent followers. Then traditional media wanted in. Each national newspaper featured stories. The Toronto Star, our largest newspaper (over 1m in circulation) featured us on the front page of both paper and online editions. Also, Canada AM, our most popular morning show (over 2m viewers) in the country featured Jeff where he talked about the film, and AMI in great detail. In the end, Accessible Media calculated that we earned over 4m impressions in all forms of media, a massive achievement given a budget of only 190K. The real coup: the Women’s Network was so impressed with all of this that they asked to run the documentary in full on their channel, free of charge. Ultimately, we achieved the primary objective: because of the exposure of ‘Jeff’s Day’ AMI received approval for funding from their Senate hearings so that they could continue their programming for another 2 years.