Audience Intelligence,
Brand Foundations,
Digital Platform Creation &
Optimization, Media Strategy
& Execution
Despite being the world’s longest recreational trail, unaided awareness of the Trans Canada Trail (TCT) remained below 10%, even among regular users. With a critical five-year federal grant set to expire, the organization faced a fundraising cliff, threatening the trail’s future maintenance and expansion.
Building on insights from our successful rebrand of TCT, theturnlab developed a fully integrated national campaign targeting the 24 million Canadians living within an hour of the trail. The campaign—Ode to the Trail—tapped into Canadians’ pride, nature affinity, and everyday trail use through storytelling across national TV, digital, social, OOH, and a newly optimized website. Paid LinkedIn media targeted federal decision-makers to influence future funding discussions.
With a modest $450K paid media budget, the campaign generated 51M+ impressions (earned media value of $1.2M), a 600% increase in web traffic, and a 400% spike in monthly donations. Most importantly, it helped secure a historic $55M federal funding deal over 7 years. The campaign now serves as a repeatable model for balancing public engagement with advocacy and financial sustainability.
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