BC Generations Project
Client: Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project, BC Arm
Challenge: Brand and recruit volunteers for BC’s largest ever health research project
Solution: BC Generations Project communications package
BC’s largest ever health research project is part of a nationally-funded initiative investigating the causes of cancer and chronic disease.
The project’s success will depend on recruiting 40,000 volunteers to contribute to a massive pool of data that will be used in thousands of studies over many decades.
Signals provided a complete communications package for the project, including branding, messaging, communications planning and tools, and a media launch. We began by revisiting the name, BC HealthBank, which could be perceived as impersonal, financially-motivated, and tied to unrelated blood banking issues. Our recommended name – the BC Generations Project – better reflects the Project’s focus on preventing disease for future generations. We also developed the tagline, “Your time today builds a healthier tomorrow” to convey the Project’s forward-looking nature and the volunteers’ time commitment.
We designed the website to serve as the primary communications tool, providing information on all aspects of the Project, especially confidentiality. Design was deliberately retro to appeal to the 40-69 age group. The messaging was targeted to attract volunteers who are educated, supportive of research, health-conscious, altruistic and have children, possibly grandchildren. Additional recruitment tools included a brochure, fact sheet, poster and pop-up display.
Following the media launch in October 2009, the immediate response was huge, enabling the Project to reduce the costs of recruitment. In fact, the communication tools proved so effective that the Project saved more on their mailing budget than they spent on the entire plan.