Table of Contents 6 2012 OVATION Awards Winning Entries

Sun Life and High Road partnered to accomplish this in three phases:
Content creation: An editorial plan was created to guide content development around key topic areas
(money, family, working life, health and retirement). The editorial team (lead by the BrighterLife.ca
Editor, a new role at Sun Life) set out to create valuable, informative content that contains useful life
advice. The strategy behind this content is always to make it magnetic: strong visuals paired with
compelling, crisp stories make the content more shareable on social media, and in turn, expand the
audience. Every piece of content is optimized for search and includes a call‐to‐action that is separate
and distinct from the article, infographic or video at hand, to provide sales‐based information for those
consumers who may be ready to initiate the next step and make a purchase.
Content delivery: BrighterLife.ca is an integrated blog and social media publishing platform that serves
as a traffic acquisition engine for SunLife.ca. By publishing BrighterLife.ca content through a mix of
digital communication channels – the website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, RSS and email alerts – the
content reaches the audience where they live online and allows them to consume content and interact
with BrighterLife.ca through their preferred channel. Creating the content delivery channel involved
brand development and design; creative web and social media channel design; website development;
search and social platform optimization and social media channel integration.
Content activation: Without activation, no matter how compelling the content may be, it won’t reach
the audience. Sound activation strategies broadcast content beyond the website into every social
medium – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Enhanced optimization through ongoing blogger/influencer
outreach and partnerships responded to social media listening and monitoring. As a result,
BrighterLife.ca’s content is catching the attention of the audiences that matter.
Implementation and Challenges
Sun Life Financial initiated the program in January 2011. Planning, design, content development and
platform creation was completed by June 2011, and soft‐launched in early July. BrighterLife.ca was
officially launched in September 2011. The program was funded by taking a small percentage of Sun
Life’s brand campaign advertising budget (8%) and reallocating it to fund the capital and operating costs
of BrighterLife.ca for 2011. In addition, Sun Life dedicated an Assistant Vice President as project sponsor
leading the digital marketing team, and created a full‐time role for the BrighterLife.ca editor, who
oversees content development.
With an ambitious project of this scope, the BrighterLife.ca team faced several challenges, including:
Helping the company think like a publisher: This is the overarching paradigm shift that comes with any
good content marketing strategy: the business becomes the storyteller. Though it certainly required a
substantial shift in thinking, it was a leap that Sun Life was willing to take. Storytelling shifted from a
campaign‐based focus to a continual stream of content production. The editorial team partnered with
business units to ensure content supports their business objectives without compromising the integrity
of the arms‐length voice of BrighterLife.ca.
Establishing a comfort level with the more casual tone of the social realm: Financial and insurance
companies are traditionally very professional, sometimes even formal, in their communications.
However, the nature of social media demands a different approach that introduces a more personal,
conversational tone of voice. This isn’t messaging, it’s a dialogue. The Sun Life digital marketing team
has a solid understanding of this point of differentiation, but it took time and practice with High Road to
put aside more formal corporate language and learn to think and write for interactive media.