Lacking in any coordinated communication efforts, the initiative struggled to gain the desired momentum with both individuals as well as organizational partners. 2013 marked a year of change with a desire to build broader awareness, while also developing a toolkit that could be replicated in other markets throughout the world. This meant first designing a common identity for the initiative that would bring consistency and professionalism to all communications, while also maintaining a spirit of fun and creativity.

The idea behind this campaign was to use the ambient media surrounding people as they go about their daily routines, to show them just how easy it is to break out of that same routine and be more creative. In fact, we realized there was an opportunity to use the media and creative to engage them in a creative act, before they even realized it. This campaign took advantage of everyday ambient touch-points including coffee stir sticks, a bicycle rack, street-level sandwich boards, park benches, subway seats, and the walls of buildings along high-traffic sidewalks as our creative canvas. In each location, a relevant piece of creative gave people active suggestions and ideas to help them realize their own creative side: take a different route to work each day, let your mind wander, stir things up, take a break, think like a kid again.

Working with the WCIW Pilot Director for Toronto, the goal was to create and test a grassroots campaign that could be picked up by other regions in future years, while working within an extremely tight budget of $3000. Despite financial limitations, we successfully produced multiple ambient pieces including signage, props, and photography, as well as constructing a “brainmobile” from scratch and producing the one-minute video. Each execution was transformed into a social object that was shared through WCIW social channels, reaching upwards of 20,000 Torontonians. As icing on the cake, this small-scale campaign received front page coverage on Creativity Online.