Provincial Election 2018

ONTARIO NDP

With pundits counting the Ontario NDP out of the 2018 election, the party needed to break through and give people a new sense of hope. As the campaign’s ad agency and strategic communications partner, we delivered ads and messaging that moved public opinion fast – all while coordinating a sophisticated media buy in the GTA, Canada’s largest media market, that overachieved on reach with a limited budget.

We helped put the authentic warmth and compassion of leader Andrea Horwath front-and-centre, allowing her to shine. Our opening ad, Imagine, delivered a positive and inspirational message (with exceptional production values) of what a better future would look like with Horwath at the helm. And our award-winning contrast ad, Dodgeball, used fresh humour, bright colours, and a striking metaphor to showcase the difference between the opponents’ painful cuts – and Horwath’s solutions to help families get ahead. We supported our TV ads with a robust pre-roll buy, as well as radio, and oversaw the transcreation of our radio and TV ads into five additional languages. On election day, the Ontario NDP achieved its best result in a generation and Andrea Horwath emerged as Ontario’s new Leader of the Official Opposition.

Our work on the campaign has been recognized with multiple awards. Dodgeball won Best Canadian TV ad at the 2019 Reed Awards, the gold award for Best Use of Humour at the 2019 AAPC Pollie Awards, and bronze for Political Marketing at the 2019 Summit Creative Awards. Our overall work on the campaign was recognized with silver awards in both the Political Marketing and Television/Commercial Campaign categories at the 2019 Summit Creative Awards.