At The NOW Group, we create winning campaigns for good causes. Our work is about making life better for people, building stronger communities, and strengthening the public services we all count on.

It’s never about collecting awards. But, when award season arrives, it’s a nice surprise to be recognized by our peers in the advertising industry—for good work that makes a real impact.

And this week, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve won 5 awards at the Summit Creative Awards, an international advertising competition featuring entries from 28 countries.

Plus, for the fourth year in a row, The NOW Group has been named a Top Agency in recognition of our team’s creative excellence.

But we couldn’t do it alone.

All our clients are working to improve life for Canadians. And we’re honoured to work with you.

Here’s a look at our award-winning campaigns.

Canadian Cancer Society – About Life

Silver Award for Health / Medicine Marketing

Everyone in Canada has a right to access palliative care. But for too many people and their loved ones, it’s not there when they need it.

We worked with the Canadian Cancer Society to create a national, bilingual campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of palliative care—and call for better access for all.

Our team travelled to meet Canadians who have lived experience of palliative care. We listened to their stories and filmed them at home and in their communities. The result is About Life, an ad featuring the voices and stories of real people and their loved ones, and complemented by four longer form videos, focusing on each person’s experiences.

At its heart, the campaign helps to address one of the biggest misconceptions about palliative care: It’s not about death.

It’s about life—and the ability to focus on what matters, when it matters most.

Check out the campaign at cancer.ca/palliativecare.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine – Ottawa’s Academic Health Network

Silver Award for Health / Medicine Video

From unlocking the secrets of genetics to finding novel therapies for rare diseases, new discoveries are occurring every day inside Ottawa’s hospitals and health faculties. And these discoveries are improving care for patients and families around the world.

That’s a story worth sharing.

In partnership with the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine—Canada’s first and largest bilingual medical faculty—we worked to help raise awareness of Ottawa’s Academic Health Network. The challenge was clear. Each of Ottawa’s hospitals and health faculties has a unique identity, its own character, and strong brand awareness with its key audiences. Each institution is known for its unique expertise.

But what isn’t widely known is the power of their partnership.

Our job was to elevate them, together. To build awareness amongst medical researchers about Ottawa’s Academic Health Network, we needed to show the connection and collaboration amongst these institutions – and the unique opportunities this cooperation creates for conducting world-leading health research in Ottawa. Read more about the project here.

National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) – Brand Refresh

Silver Award for Logo Redesign

There’s so much we love about NUPGE! It’s a unique family of unions that serves as the national voice for its provincial components, representing 425,000 members who deliver public services of every kind.

It’s a leader in the fight to improve working conditions and protect public services for Canadians. And by uniting provincial unions, NUPGE speaks with a truly unique national perspective.

NUPGE’s previous logo was over 20 years old and feeling a bit dated. The logo wasn’t fully capturing the real strengths of this “union of unions” or reflecting the warmth of an organization that brings people together.

To help change that, we set out on a collaborative branding process to strengthen and modernize NUPGE’s look. We listened and learned from NUPGE’s team, conducted extensive consultations and discovery sessions together, and worked in partnership to deliver the refreshed brand tools that the union needs.

Our goal? To help NUPGE look its best. Read more here.

CUPE 503 – In Our Communities. For Our Communities

Silver Award for Public Service Campaign

CUPE 503 represents almost 10,000 members across Eastern Ontario, delivering public services that help strengthen our communities.

Together, we worked to give CUPE 503 a fresh new look, new tagline, and new campaign—that showcases the vital work members do every day. 

The new ads showcase the beauty of a community where strong and reliable public services make it possible to learn, grow, play, and care for each other. And the new tagline says it all: CUPE 503 members are in our communities, for our communities.

See more of the campaign and rebrand here. 

Ontario NDP – Election 2022

Gold Award for Political Marketing

As the lead ad agency for the Ontario NDP in the 2022 election campaign, we crafted a wide range of creative content including three signature television ads.

A lot of voters love to hate political advertising. But these ads are different. Believe stood out for its unscripted authenticity and grit. It was down-to-earth and elevated the real voices of workers. Hard Work built on that message, showing that the NDP is committed to fixing health care instead of cutting it, fixing seniors’ care instead of neglecting it, and bringing down the costs families face.

And Ping Pong? Well, it’s just a great ad! Filmed with 2,000 orange ping pong balls, it used humour and a smart metaphor to help turn pessimism and cynicism into hope and optimism. And it transformed the other parties’ strength—their long history of governing in Ontario—into their biggest weakness.

Congratulations to all our clients and production partners across Canada. We can’t wait to see what we do next, together!