Quiller & Blake Advertising

Veterans Affairs Canada

Background:
An announcement regarding the Pension for Life initiative had been made in December 2017, explaining PFL and setting a start date of April 1, 2019. PFL was defined as a combination of benefits that provides recognition and income support and stability to Veterans and Canadian Armed Forces members who experience a service-related illness and/or injury. It is intended, along with My VAC Account, to simplify the process that Veterans with service-related illnesses and/or injuries go through to receive the benefits to which they are entitled. PFL includes adjustments to benefits and new benefits that will contribute to the enhanced well being of Veterans with service-related injuries and/or illnesses, and their families. A national advertising campaign was planned for launch in mid-April, 2019 to raise the awareness of PFL and the benefits it provides, among multiple audiences. In October 2018 Q & B was contracted by VAC to create a campaign for PFL along with two other more minor campaigns (a campaign for “My VAC Account” that encouraged Veterans to sign up for an account and a campaign for “Mental Health” encouraging veterans to access services provided in this regard). The two smaller campaigns were to launch in February 2019 and March 2019 respectively. All three of these campaigns were needed to stimulate action and change behaviour. It was necessary to get going quickly since there was a myriad of steps and approvals to go through before creative production could begin.

PFL Campaign Objectives
The main objectives of this campaign can be stated as follows:
• Increase awareness of PFL within all target audiences
• Demonstrate that PFL is a very positive step to help improve the well being of injured and/or ill Veterans (with injuries or illnesses derived from their service)
• Increase recognition of Veterans and the value of their services
• Motivate the target audiences to investigate the benefits of PFL (call, click or visit)
• Provide information to help Veterans and their families get the information they need to access help

Target Audiences:
Ultimately the following target audiences were identified as primary targets for this campaign, in order of importance:
• Veterans who were currently receiving VAC services
• Veterans who were not receiving VAC services
• Members of the CAF (Canadian Armed Forces) who were about to become Veterans
• Members of the CAF
• Family members of all of the above
• Veteran’s organizations/advocates

A list of secondary target audiences was also identified:
• The general public
• The government
• All media
• Health and well-being advocates and organizations

Strategic Approaches:
At our agency we firmly believe that a great deal of time is wasted by exploring messaging options and campaign options before firmly establishing the central message or theme through research, analysis and discussion. Our MarketConnectTM system provides a disciplined approach that guards against this waste of time and effort while producing the highest quality solutions. We recommend that every campaign should be preceded by a process that defines an audience reactive, central message. Experience suggests that this not only speeds up approvals but often produces significant budget savings. Once the central message has been agreed upon and tested with the target audiences, every campaign alternative carries that message, albeit with differing copy, images, and tone-of-voice. In the case of Veteran’s Affairs Canada, the MarketConnectTM process contributed to a campaign wrap up with a saving of almost $200,000 in the production budget.

To cut a long story short after a review of available research, environmental scans, and the formulation of different themes and message definitions were discussed and approved, a national focus group research study was designed and conducted. The input from this study and from discussions with internal stakeholders dictated that what the primary target groups wanted to think and feel could be expressed in a short phrase: “PFL is here for you.” What the wider audience wanted to take up was: “look, we (all of us) are doing our duty.” We were not suggesting that this is what we should say but rather this is what the campaign should reflect. In order to accomplish this we recommended an empathetic and cheerful tone-of-voice showing what PFL accomplishes for Veterans and their families. The images and the stories of the ads should do the same. We proposed that all communications should engender feelings of empathy, purpose and future growth since participants in both levels of research had indicated the need for stress of positive outcomes rather than discussion of physical or mental problems. They also abjured any reference to sympathy. As with all marketing communications a strong, simple, relevant, central message would be crucial.

Armed with an approved central message, the agency then went forward to produce three different campaigns for national testing in both official languages. It was our recommendation that the campaign at its core should tell a story in order to make it memorable, while providing a path to more information. Three different stories were created in story board and script formats for client discussion, and after refinement, three animatic videos in English and French were produced and tested nationally, providing the audiences with enough information to “feel” the campaigns as well as react to their content. The information gathered could then inform the production of a thirty second video, from which all elements of the campaign would flow. A script and storyboard were then produced for the final concept and presented through various levels for approval.

Creative Production:
Since the video was to be the backbone of the campaign a search was conducted for four individuals that would fill the roles required for the chosen video story. This was complicated by the client’s expressed need to recruit actual veterans rather than employ actors. Ultimately we found the people we required and were able to balance the group from a diversity perspective, although this proved somewhat difficult. It was also necessary that uniforms were absolutely correct so a CAF officer was enjoined to check this out and make sure. The veteran actors were then carefully prepared for their roles before shooting and photography began. Attention was also paid to the tone of the voiceovers in English and French in order to maintain the tone and feeling of the story depicted in the video.

Once edited and finalized the video received quick approvals throughout VAC, PCO, and the PMO.

The video prescribed to both Veteran’s Affairs style guides and those of Canada. A clear call to action was provided in every iteration, directing the viewer or in the case of radio, the listener, to a telephone number and a landing page for more information.

Almost all creative sprung from the story created by the video and the characters developed in the video. The video was sliced into several different lengths and images in order to meet the requirements of the media plan. Examples demonstrating how elements of the “story” worked effectively across all the various platforms in English and French are provided below. This campaign was integrated fully, with the same tone, images, words and actions being presented across all.

Results:
All of the quantifiable stated objectives have been met.
1. Increase number of NCCN calls and inquiries through My VAC Account by 2% during the campaign This target has been exceeded. To date inquiries have increased by 22.5%.
2. Increase aided recall by 3% (ACET)
Aided recall increased to 7%
3. Reach an average of 400 page views per day on pension for life page during the campaign

Page views have averaged 723 to date and several times numbers have crashed the system

4. Obtain 16,000 tweet engagements
To date there have been 55,249 tweet engagements.