Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries
digital marketing
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) advocates on behalf of its members, which employ more than 60,000 people in small to medium-sized businesses in technology development, cybersecurity, manufacturing, and training across the country. It’s a diverse industry supported by diverse backgrounds – sounds pretty Canadian.
But, Canada’s defence and security is an undefined industry to the public, and Alphabet® needed to shift some misconceptions. There is a wealth of innovation being created in the industry, a passion to improve the lives of Canadians and protect our environment from coast to coast to coast.
We understood that in this industry, it’s about people.
By shifting the conversation from what Canada’s defence and security industry does to who it is, we pulled into focus individuals helping to build a stronger, safer Canada.
My North, My Home – a platform to raise our voice.
We created MyNorthMyHome.ca as a hub to share human stories, hear from folks across the industry spearheading amazing innovations, and learn more about the safety and security of our northern communities. From fighter jet pilots to leaders in cybersecurity, welders inspiring the future of women in trades to robotics engineers, through My North, My Home, we met a broad cross-section of Canadians working to make an impact. They shared their jobs, but more importantly, they shared their passion for their jobs, and the satisfaction that comes with keeping Canadians safe.
promotional campaign
Benoit Corbeil
My job is design engineering. My passion is knowing that what I do helps save lives in Canada’s North.
read moreVicki Berg
My job is welding in a shipyard. My passion is empowering young women to pursue skilled trades.
read moreSam Macdonald
My job is running an underwater robotics company. My passion is using modern technology to explore, monitor, and defend.
read more
promotional campaign
The results speak for themselves.
These stories struck a chord. Our full promotional campaign included traditional media, digital, and experiential channels. Stories were shared across various social media platforms to reach the public and policymakers alike. As a promotional and experiential campaign, My North, My Home demonstrated great value to CADSI’s members, and our paid digital campaigns outpaced expectations, generating CTRs that far exceeded our benchmarks.
7,000,000
media impressions
2,601,800
social impressions
97,600
social clicks
3.75%
social click-through rate
34,293
video views
4,783
post reactions
experiential
A round-trip ticket to
the North.
It’s not always easy to see the results of Canada’s defence and security industry’s hard work in Canada’s North – bringing life-changing innovations to northern communities and protecting our northern borders at the land, air, and sea levels. We couldn’t take the more than 11,000 attendees at CADSI’s annual Trade Show, CANSEC, to Canada’s Arctic in a weekend, but we could bring the North to CANSEC.
We created a fully immersive virtual reality experience to take attendees on a mission through the Arctic on a snowmobile, submarine, and jet. Throughout the three-and-a-half-minute journey, attendees put themselves in the shoes of real people in the industry.
watch VR videoOur mission (and we chose to accept it)
Attendees approached CADSI’s booth to find a panoramic view of our VR experience displayed across three vertical screens. We even brought in a genuine snowmobile for attendees to “ride.” Our talented team of bilingual activators ensured attendees had a blast and each mission went off without a hitch.
“
Sitting on the snowmobile made it feel so real.”
“
Very unique experience.”
“
This looks
f***king awesome!”
The entire VR experience was built from scratch right here at Alphabet®, with our bravest volunteers ruthlessly testing the game to iron out any kinks (and keep the motion sickness to a minimum).
Besides 2019 being the most successful CANSEC to date, our VR ride saw a steady stream of seriously impressed players.