Sixty businesses in Vancouver’s downtown core were affected by the Stanley Cup riots, either by looting or damages that came in at around $5 million.
But days after the city had started to mend, local business continued to feel the impact with hotel and restaurant cancellations and a very noticeable dearth of customers.
“There was a real perspective that Vancouver wasn’t a safe place to be in,” said Rob Schlyecher, partner and creative director at Spring Advertising. “We needed to let people know that it’s okay to come back down to Vancouver again.”
Spring put together “Vanlover,” a pro-bono campaign for the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association to encourage people to come back to the city.
The campaign started as a full-page print ad in the local papers that showed the words “vanlover” inside a giant heart and asked readers to cut it out, hang it up, and then come downtown to show how much they loved their city. Spring added a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and put the logo onto T-shirts.
Mayor Gregor Robertson endorsed the campaign and suddenly the feel-good T-shirt started outselling ones with messages such as “I survived the Vancouver Riots 2011.” The hearts are now all over store windows and cars.
“Rather than just put up a full-page ad with an all-clear signal, we thought it was better to say ‘Let’s all get behind this,’” said Schlyecher. “There was so much pride in Vancouver after everybody got over the shame and the anger following the riot, that we thought it would be good to give people a tool to express that.”
Spring isn’t the only agency wanting to help Vancouver’s sullied image. Last week DDB Canada, with help from OMD Canada, launched full-page print ads and ThisIsOurVancouver.com.
The website is designed against a plywood backdrop and pulls content from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube and allows users to post comments on what best defines Vancouver. The print ads show a blank piece of plywood and read: “The actions of a few aren’t a true reflection of our city.
