Youth club continues rejuvenation program with corporate partners
It’s more than 100 years old, but Scouts Canada is still playing with toy cars.
The organization has teamed with Hot Wheels on a two-year partnership that will see the Mattel brand play a prominent role in the organization’s popular Kub Kars and Beaver Buggies programs.
Financial deals of the partnership, which was brokered by TrojanOne, were not disclosed.
Introduced in 1978, Kub Kars is designed to foster creativity and active play by having Cub Scouts (aged 8-10) design, build and race a model car at rally events in their communities. The Beavers Buggies program caters to younger boys.
“What we’re hoping to do through this partnership is better support those programs, and increase the visibility of scouting to a much broader community,” said Steve Kent, chief commissioner and chair of the board of governors for Scouts Canada in Mount Pearl, NL.
Hot Wheels, he added, will provide tools and resources that will make it easier for Scouts Canada’s 24,000 volunteers to organize the Kub Kars and Beaver Buggies programs.
The partnership includes contesting and prizing for Scouts Canada members, and the creation of a “Hot Wheels Kub Kar Rally Kit” consisting of giveaways and promotional material. It will also include downloadable resource materials such as posters, building and decorating tips and thank you certificates. Hot Wheels will also promote Scouts Canada through its website.
“It really is a win-win partnership where we’re promoting two brands that have been synonymous with growing up in this country for many years,” said Kent.
Kent characterized the involvement with corporate sponsors as a “fairly new area” for the organization, undertaken as part of an ongoing “revitalization process” called “Scouting Now: An Action Plan for Canadian Scouting” developed in 2009.
“We were very much aware of the need to look at our image and profile and figure out how we could really improve upon it and better connect with Canadian families and children and youth,” said Kent.
Membership in Scouts Canada had been declining steadily since hitting a peak of 320,000 in 1965. However the organization has seen its membership increase for three straight years – a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since the mid-1970s – and now boasts just over 100,000 members. The goal, said Kent, is for Scouts Canada to be bigger than ever by 2020.
“We have ambitious growth goals and to reach them means renewing some of our traditional partnerships (service clubs, schools, church groups), but it also means building new relationships with corporate and government partners,” said Kent.
In November, Scouts entered into a five-year $1 million deal with Imperial Oil aimed at integrating science, technology, engineering and math into programs catering to older youth. The organization also partnered with clothing company Joe Fresh, which redesigned the Scouts Canada uniforms to be what Kent called “more modern and practical” last year.
Asked if there was any concern about a youth organization taking on corporate sponsorships, Kent said there was “definitely a sensitivity we need to be mindful of. We’re very careful in selecting corporate partners that are a really good fit in terms of scouting values and principles. We’re looking for partners that have an interest in helping youth reach their full potential.”
The organization is looking to work with partners committed to areas aligned with its core mandates of healthy, active living, environmental stewardship and leadership development, said Kent.
“We’ve certainly fielded lots of questions from some of our volunteers and leaders and parents, but I think for the most part people are very comfortable and confident that we’re doing this in a responsible way,” said Kent. “We’ve mapped out a sponsorship strategy with very rigorous guidelines around the types of organizations we’re prepared to partner with.”
The organization is in “active discussions” with other potential corporate partners, said Kent.
