Insurance firm Aviva Canada launched the third edition of its Community Fund competition Monday with the stated goal of improving communities across the country.
Individuals or groups submit ideas on the contest microsite at AvivaCommunityFund.org. For example, at press time, groups had uploaded videos and project descriptions for anti-bullying films, urban renewal projects and youth outreach programs.
Entrants are encouraged to solicit votes for these submissions through social media sites. Two rounds of online voting will determine which 30 submissions move on to the final round. A panel of independent judges will then determine the winners, which will be announced Jan. 25, 2012. Each winning entry receives a prize from the $1 million pot.
Glenn Cooper, senior manager of public relations at Aviva, said the company sees the annual Community Fund competition as a brand promotion to help “spread the word about Aviva and the fact we’re a good corporate citizen.
“We’re being very honest, this was our marketing spend and we decided to use it in a different way,” he said, adding that Aviva Canada generally only interacts with its customers on two occassions: when they pay a bill or file a claim (Cooper said the company handles over 200,000 claims a year).
“We’re helping people every day of the year get back into a normal routine after some sort of loss.” Helping Canadians through the Community Fund “is an extension of that and another way for us to interact with our customers.”
Aviva Canada is promoting the competition through a broadcast sponsorship with CTV and its French-language counterpart TVA in addition to ads in the commuter newspaper 24 Hours.
