Just in time for hockey season, Canada’s Chartered Professional Accountants (CPAs) launched a new campaign Sept. 17, under the tagline “The professionals are turning pro.”
The TV spots feature average businesspeople in pro-sport situations: getting a bucket of Gatorade dumped over their heads at the office or facing a media scrum in a CPA jersey.
The $5-million multi-media campaign wants to drive home the message that almost all of Canada’s professional accountants are moving to the CPA banner.
“This is the time to get out there and talk about what’s really happening, to build a new brand and explain to the marketplace what it is, why it’s important, and why it’s valuable,” said Heather Whyte, vice-president of strategic communications, branding and public affairs for CPA Canada. “The headline means we’re really raising the bar a notch, and that by unification, we’re becoming stronger.”
Three accounting professions – chartered accountants (CAs), certified general accountants (CGAs), and certified management accountants (CMAs) – will now unite as CPAs. Over 90% of the accounting bodies in Canada have agreed to the unification.
This is the first national campaign for CPAs and the first national advertising Canadian accountants have had for over two years. It includes TV, newspaper and online ads, as well as a new logo and a website. The campaign is set to run into the spring of 2014.
The ads were created by One Advertising in Toronto and Reservoir from Montreal. The companies also did the media buy.
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“The idea is to create a bold, different approach that reflects the fact that something new is happening, and then to make it as simple as possible,” said Whyte. “It’s also showing the intelligence, the value, through the choice of words and the double entendres that reflect the profession, as opposed to a traditional ad in the accounting field.”
The second phase of the campaign, which rolls out in four weeks, will include a new 30-second ad that delves into the details of what CPAs do. Both campaigns target the business community, as well as the general public and members.
A smaller version of the campaign, also created by Reservoir, went out in Quebec last year. “We realized very quickly is consistency is critical, and that having a single, stronger voice would be very important to us as we moved across the country, on both visual identity and message,” said Whyte. “The Quebec ad campaign worked very well, was very well received, and did increase the awareness level in the marketplace. I’m hoping we’re going to see the same result here.”
