How to Make 84,000 People
Be Kind to Each Other
The CMHA Kindness Project
When the Canadian Mental Health Association North Bay and District (CMHA NBD) asked us to grow participation in Mental Health Week across the entire district, we knew we would have to be resourceful and pull out all the stops. The result was a campaign that allowed us to flex our muscles in almost every area of marketing, bringing it all together with a smart and creative strategy for success.
Challenge
First, we needed to spread awareness and inspire engagement—an entire community that would not only participate but feel personally connected to the campaign. The goal wasn’t just about numbers; it was about authentic, heartfelt involvement. A key part of this was to communicate the science behind kindness, giving audiences a reason to believe: when we are kind to others, both parties win. At the same time, we were working with tight timelines and a limited budget.
Solutions
Brand Positioning
We created a highly shareable brand for the campaign that would not only create demand for stickers and collateral materials but also communicate our premise. The vase and flowers were not just a symbol of kindness but doubled as a laboratory beaker bursting with positive energy, while the tagline served as a call to action that said it all – Do Good. Feel Good.
Multi-Channel Approach
To make a large impact in a short time we needed to be firing on all cylinders and take advantage of every avenue available to us. This included grass roots social media, traditional earned media, empowering local schools, employers, community organizations and more. The true power in this strategy was connecting all these efforts together to multiply their effect and flood the community with kindness!
Social Media and the Kindness Crew
Creating engaging social media content was crucial to the success of our campaign and for the audience needed to see others participating. In addition to branded graphics shared in both English and French, our Kindness Crew documented events and posted them on Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok to grow the impact of the community’s efforts.
Hashtags like #KindnessConnects and #KindnessNorth spread across platforms, allowing people to share their own acts of kindness and allowing us to track uptake. Furthermore, we linked social posts to our campaign landing page where the audience could find ways to participate and get inspiring updates.
“Captain Kindness” Mascot
We needed a mascot to the embody the spirit of our campaign spirit. Captain Kindness would appear at various events in costume to delight audiences, while his or her adventures where shared on social media. The community never knew where Captain Kindness would appear next, and who would be wearing the suit this time!
Community Events
We brought North Bay to life with a series of events that turned kindness into action. Key to this strategy was to capture and share the events online, multiplying their reach. A few highlights include:
City Hall:
- The mayor officially kicked-off the Kindness Project in his opening monologue at council while we raised a kindness flag for the media.
- Residents gathered people for events like a free Zumba class in City Hall Square.
Local Schools:
- Held assemblies to encourage students to participate in acts of kindness, children wrote kind notes on rocks distributing them around the community, bus drivers and school staff were honored by students and teachers and kids visited local retirement homes singing songs and handing out cards.
North Bay Regional Health Centre:
- A professional development day was held for workers in the Health and Human Services fields and the Ever Cool Ice Cream Truck was engaged to distribute free ice cream throughout the city!
Canadian Mental Health North Bay and District
- CMHA NBD Peer Connections and Support Services ribbon-cutting and Be Kind BBQ.
- Hundreds of residents gathered to enjoy free food and drinks, marking the end of a remarkable week.
Kindness Cast & Earned Media
The Kindness Cast brought it all together. We brought in local students as newscasters to spread awareness of the various events around the city, leveraging support from local media.
Podcasting
Leaving no stone unturned, we harnessed a local podcasting network to interview two Nipissing University psychology professors about the scientific reasons being kind makes us feel good. This content was peppered throughout the district, not only on all podcasting platforms but on social media and our campaign landing page as well.
Results
The results of The Kindness Project were inspiring. Over 1,100 visitors engaged with the campaign website, while social media posts generated over 67,000 impressions on Facebook and more than 4,300 views on Instagram. The Kindness Cast resonated with the community, gathering over 300 views on YouTube alone. And perhaps the sweetest success of all—more than 2,000 free ice creams were handed out across the city, courtesy of North Bay Regional Health Centre. Hundreds of residents, employees and students physically participated and got hands-on throughout the community, a metric that is perhaps more important than all the other numbers combined!
Client Testimonial
“Working with Clark Communications on The Kindness project was a rewarding experience for us. We started with a simple idea: encourage people to show kindness and compassion. Scott and his team used their creativity, skill and expertise to turn our little seed of a concept into a powerful campaign. The results were beyond our expectations, and the positive impact of The Kindness Project on our community has been incredible.”
About Clark
Founded in 2004, Clark Communications is a dynamic group of marketing professionals with a killer blend of strategy and creativity. For over two decades, we’ve dedicated ourselves to helping our clients launch campaigns and events that inspire action.
Contact us today to find out what we can do for you.