Table of Contents 6 2012 OVATION Awards Winning Entries

“Penelope” has prepared a "report card" on where candidates stand on the issues so that
Ontarians can make an informed choice when they vote for her future.
“Penelope” was selected from a pool of children who were already engaged in environmental issues
through school. Within a short window of time she was trained on the issues (including site visits) and
prepared for a month‐long tour. The campaign was launched at the start of September with a
speech/photo op on the lawn of Queen’s Park, and as expected, Penelope4Ontario quickly gained a
captive audience. She visited sites from the Holland Marsh to solar‐panel factories, traveling in an
election‐style tour across key areas of Ontario and documented her journey and her encounters with
politicians and the public through photos, videos, blogs, and social media. She talked to Ontarians about
the importance of preserving the Greenbelt and investing in renewable energy. Her tour brought her to
places like Barrie, Ottawa, and Hamilton, where she gave speeches, kissed babies, shook hands, spoke to
media, and interviewed political candidates on their platforms. The tour ended with a wrap party in
Toronto to celebrate the campaign’s success.
The campaign materials:
Website – Penelope4Ontario.ca was intended to drive voters to a central hub where they could
read the parties' platforms (“Report Card”) and make an informed vote. The mock candidate
website mimicked the websites of candidates and included several components: logo,
biography, photos, news, Penelope's platform, campaign video, Report Card, social media tools,
and a daily blog. Readers could also make environmental pledges, and left hundreds of
motivational messages for “Penelope”.
Printed materials – Printed materials were created for offline campaign activities, and featured
QR codes for easy access to the site. These included posters and picket signs, buttons, handbills,
and a car decal for the campaign vehicle. On the tour’s stop in Ottawa, custom "Penelope
Cookies" were created to mimic the infamous "Obama Cookies" sold at the Byward Market.
Campaign videos – Over the duration of the campaign, Environmental Defence coordinated the
concept, script and production of five videos: “Meet Penelope – Penelope4Ontario.ca”,
“Penelope’s Speech at Queen’s Park”, “To Penelope: Future Shmuture”, “Ontario Election
Debate: Penelope vs. Donald” and “It’s a wrap! Penelope4Ontario campaign”. Creating
campaign videos enabled us to summarize and bring forward our priority environmental issues
to help raise awareness amongst voters and induce them to share the video content with
others. The videos were also intended to drive viewers to the site where they could learn more
about the campaign and the party platforms.
Advertising – Working with a limited budget, we focused our efforts on small ad buys on
facebook and youtube. Banner ads were designed and posted on allies’ sites, such as
greenlivingonline.ca, at no cost.
Earned media – Media releases were crafted at the launch of the campaign and upon the
release of two subsequent campaign videos. Media advisories were also sent out and helped the
campaign earn media at each stop along the campaign trail. A full list of media coverage can be
found under Question 6.
The campaign successfully obtained commitments from party leaders and effectively made
environmental issues election priorities. Despite non‐profit constraints, we remained under budget,
spending only $48,000 of our $60,000 budget. Keeping that and the tight timeline from planning to
execution of the campaign in mind, the Penelope4Ontario project was highly effective in raising
awareness of the issues and the work of our organization. More results can be found under Question 6.