Raising The Roof has appointed Leo Burnett’s Toronto office as its agency of record to launch a campaign that will focus on youth homelessness.
The national charity hasn’t run a campaign since the second leg of its “Hidden Homelessness” effort from Grey Canada went to market in 2006. The campaign is still running in certain markets across Canada.
Raising the Roof had to look for a new agency however, after Grey Canada secured agency of record status with the Salvation Army last November. The charities are too similar in nature, explained Jennifer Parnell, director of strategic and financial planning at Raising the Roof.
The organization met with Leo Burnett and DDB Toronto last month with both shops presenting past charity-focused campaigns and credentials.
“We met with two excellent ad agencies and we were impressed with both of them in terms of their strategic thinking and level of professionalism,” said Parnell. “[But] Leo had worked on more campaigns that were similar.”
Every year, Leo Burnett picks what it calls a pro bono “passion account,” and this year focused on securing Raising the Roof, which is known for its yearly toque campaign. The new effort will focus on the issue of youth homelessness and will launch this fall.
“The fact that on any given night 65,000 youths in Canada are without a place to call home is appalling,” said Leo Burnett president and CEO David Moore, in a release. “We really want to help change that and be part of a solution.”
