In 2007, Royal Bank of Canada decided to launch its most ambitious philanthropic investment in history: the RBC Blue Water Project, a $50 million commitment to the protection of freshwater through grants to water organizations around the globe.In 2010, RBC still had low brand recognition for its commitment to water among employees, clients, and with the general public.Objective: Raise awareness of the RBC Blue Water Project and its global commitment to freshwater preservation.We chose a communication campaign that respected the core message of the project itself: sustainability.

We transformed the production budget normally allocated to make TV commercials into the creation of short documentaries showcasing the work of 3 key grant recipients. These stories were promoted through social media strategies and the material was given back to water causes for their own self-promotion.To complement these initiatives, we hosted the first RBC Blue Water Day to help bring attention to the work being done through the RBC Blue Water Project on the local level.In 8-months, RBC positioned itself as the environmental leader in Canadian Banking.

Year-one we converted the TV ad production budget into the creation of 3 short documentaries highlighting the work of grant recipients: Free The Children, Tides Canada, and National Geographic. We also created a movie trailer for a feature documentary film (launch 2012), exclusive interviews, making-of movie clips, and a photo gallery. All these materials were used to feed our social media platforms set-up to build advocacy for the water cause. A branded YouTube channel, watchthefilm.org, was created to host the short documentary films. We also launched two programs: the RBC Blue Water Facebook Challenge and an employee Adopt a Program campaign - as employees are key players in helping spread the message.

To complement these initiatives, we hosted the first RBC Blue Water Day (June 11, 2010) to give local bank branches and employees an opportunity to celebrate the grant recipients in their own communities.  

In 8-months, RBC positioned itself as the environmental leader in Canadian Banking: we’ve received over 160,000 channel views on its YouTube Channel (placing it in 20th position in terms of subscriptions), built an engaged Facebook community of 20,000 fans with a conversation rate of about 20 comments per post, generated over 150 articles in offline/online publications and blogs.

Post-campaign brand research found an important lift in environmental attributes for RBC across all targets, and also employee pride scores improved as a direct response to their increased awareness of the RBC Blue Water Project.