2025 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Canada was facing a major hiring problem: the unemployment rate was 70% higher amongst Black Canadians than their non-visible minority counterparts. The situation was even worse for young Black Canadians, where 1 in 3 Black youth aged 15 to 24 were unemployed.

Despite their comparable skill sets, Black Canadians were being undervalued or not even recognized by employers and hiring managers.

The CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals (or CEE) is a Toronto-based non-profit organization that provides free career skills training to Black youth across in-demand industries – from film and entertainment to tech, finance,
and trades.

Over the past 10 years, they’ve been working to tackle Canada’s hiring bias head-on. But with thousands of urgent non-profits surrounding them, they struggled to make their cause feel significant.

CEE needed to achieve two things. Create awareness around the power of their mission and commitment. As well as show prospective employers, donors, and potential program applicants that Black youth were qualified, brilliant, and ready to take on any challenge; in the workplace and outside of it.

Young Black people will face instant judgment based on what they wear – the most notable example being the hoodie. So, they flipped the script on that bias to show the world their capabilities. The agency created “Who I Really Am” hoodies, each customized and emblazoned with the achievements of nine real CEE alumni.

They became a walking showcase of the skills, talents, and experience of the Black youth wearing them and the core of the campaign.

The agency kicked off the awareness campaign on BlackYouthCan.ca, anchored by a hero video, stories of their nine featured CEE alumni, and information about the organization and its mission.

On LinkedIn and other social channels, they caught the attention of employers, reminding them of the discrimination Black youth face and the skills and challenges they’re ready to take on in the workplace.

They extended the campaign city-wide with contextual out-of-home executions placed in the same areas where the alumni were applying or had applied for jobs, powerful Black Toronto influencer partnerships, and a major PR push that saw CEE alum and leaders share their “Who I Really Am” stories with millions more.

From the start, they made the principles of DE&I their priority, by ensuring that their team was inclusive and open to different ideas and skill sets from team members of all ethnicities. They ensured that their leadership was composed of members with a particular insight into the problem they were aiming to solve i.e. the hiring bias among Toronto’s employers leading to disproportionate levels of unemployment among young Black Canadians.

The “Who I really Am” campaign delivered unprecedented awareness for CEE in Toronto with results that blew past every expectation. Proving to the city – and nation – that black youth can:

The campaign garnered a 760% increase in CEE site visitors during the campaign — the largest increase ever in their 10-year history.
Social awareness broke through on relevant channels (LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram) with CEE page and campaign video views up more than 500% – and a significant increase in engagement on LinkedIn from users in leadership roles.

CEE experienced a surge of program and application queries upto more than 13,000 – a 22% increase during the campaign period – creating a waiting list for the first time in their history.

There were 170 million out-of-home impressions, and 17 million earned media impressions with high-profile coverage on CTV NaBonal News, CP24, Newstalk1010, Canadian HR Reporter and more.

Credits

Campaign Team Leads:
Stephanie McRae, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Publicis Groupe Canada and SVP, Head of Human Resources, Leo Burnett Canada and Saatchi & Saatchi
Scott Pinkney, SVP Executive Creative Director, Publicis Hawkeye
Nicole Grant, SVP, North Strategic

PR and Influencer:
Sophie Prefol, PR Lead, Publicis Groupe Canada
Jaclyn Melville, Account Executive, North Strategic
Emily Dawson, Account Executive, North Strategic
Sarah Harris, Account Director, MSL Canada
Jade Hunter, Senior Account Manager, MSL Canada
Lexa Newell, Senior Account Manager, North Strategic Randy Phipps, RP Communications

Creative Leads:
Scott Pinkney, SVP Executive Creative Director, Publicis Hawkeye
Natee Likitsuwankool, Associate Creative Director, Art Director, Leo Burnett
Appanna Chetranda, Associate Creative Director, Copywriter, Leo Burnett

Research & Strategy:
Emma Bayfield, Senior Strategist, Publicis Canada
Aleeza Yermus, Senior Strategist, Leo Burnett Canada
Chris Whyte, Group Strategy Director, Research & Planning, Publicis Canada

Account Leads:
Daniel Vescio, Account Director, Publicis Canada
Deb Sanyal, Account Supervisor, Publicis Canada

Production, Video and Stills:
Tara Handley, VP Head of Production, Saatchi & Saatchi Canada
Darrell Martin, Retoucher, TPM
Chris Benson, Editor, TPM
Kobi Ntiri, Video Director
Mike Regis, Talent/Videographer, OutsiderGenre

Paid Media:
Marina Matyash, VP, Digital Performance, Zenith Media
Steve White, Strategy Director, Zenith Media

Clothing/Production:
Gord Cathmoir, VP, Post & Print Production, Leo Burnett Canada
Lisa Reid, Senior Production Manager, Publicis Hawkeye
Jason Blackwood, Founder, Grandslammer$ Apparel

Web Design:
Melanie Jarcaig, Director of Digital Production, Publicis Canada
Kevin Chinbuah, Senior Experience Designer, Publicis Sapient
Matty Rivera, Technology Lead, Motion & Display

Production: IQ & Maker
Online: The Pub Productions