Swipe right on summer!

One of the “secrets” behind the strength of any organization’s brand is simple. Success starts by making an emotional connection with your audience and winning people’s hearts. It’s as true for unions, non-profits, charities, and public sector organizations as for anything else.

Showing up and showing you care is the first and most important step to building a community of supporters who will hear your message—and help take it further.

How will you win people’s hearts this summer

You’ve got more platforms and more tactics available for your next campaign than ever before. But this summer, don’t overlook the potential to connect with your audience in one of the friendliest and most neighbourly of ways: By showing up at community events, cultural festivals, art crawls, and all the great summer events that fill the streets of our big cities and small towns all summer long!

Our team has lots of ideas to help your union or non-profit make the most of summer 2024! Here are just a few ways you can show you care alongside your members—and future supporters—this summer:

Sponsor a Festival

What’s better than going to a party? Try hosting the party! Consider sponsoring one of your community’s favourite summer events. It’s a great way to get noticed and sends a powerful message to every attendee: We share something important in common. After all, we both showed up here!

Get Noticed at Street-Level

After months of winter hibernation, spring and summer bring people back onto streets and sidewalks across the country. People are walking more, running more, cycling more—and that creates a great opportunity to get noticed at street-level with fresh billboards, transit shelters, and out-of-home advertising.

And don’t pass up the opportunity for posters, such as wildpostings on busy sidewalks! With striking design and eye-catching messages, you can turn heads and get that all-important second look. It’s also a great way to use gritty, organic, and community-inspired design to build a connection with your audience.

Hop on Transit

Transit ridership continues to rebound across the country, following the pandemic. And there’s good reason to show up on transit this summer. It’s one of the most recognizable public services in people’s lives. And, even if they don’t use transit to get to work, many people will hop on transit to get to summer festivals. Think of the routes people will take and meet people there with eye-catching ads on buses or streetcars—or on your city’s light-rail transit or subway lines.

Pedal Your Message

City bikes offer a fun opportunity for catchy creative. Plus you’re showing your support for cycling infrastructure—and that’s good for everyone’s health and for the environment, too. Plus, we’ve noticed a lot of bonusing on city bike advertising spaces, meaning your creative could stay up longer than you pay for.

Show Up on Screens

Digital ads on mobile devices are a great way to reach people attending a festival or community event. And if people are visiting town for the event, you have an even bigger audience you can reach with a weekend’s worth of digital ads. Plus, digital ads can be an affordable way to dip your toes into festival advertising, without breaking the bank.

Lean In

Want to strike a chord at Folk Fest? Reaching a summer audience is a great opportunity to lean into the event’s theme—with a creative approach that gives people a grin or even a giggle.

Nothing makes your message more memorable than embracing the vibe of the event, wholeheartedly. And our creative team is here to help! We can help you craft a creative approach that shows you love the festival as much as anyone who’s attending. You’re not just there as an advertiser; you’re there as a fan.

The Writing’s on the… Ground?

Think chalk art is just for kids? Think again! Hiring a mural artist to design stunning sidewalk art can be a great way to get noticed by hundreds of festival-goers. And it helps convey an important message about your union or non-profit’s personality: You’re fun, down-to-earth, and not afraid to get your hands dirty.

Feed People!

We all know it. The best way to a person’s heart is… food! From ice cream trucks to lemonade stands, there’s no shortage of great ways to give people something good to eat – and make a memorable connection. Just be prepared to be popular! (Hint: don’t run out.)

Light It Up

Got an evening art crawl or late-night jazz performances in your community? Light up the night with light projections after dark. For several hours each evening, you can be turning heads and getting noticed in an entirely unexpected way.

Excited about summer? Want to explore ideas for how you can show up in your own community? Give us a call, or send us an email. We’d love to help!