the situation
mychoice.ca was looking for a creative way to present their particular view of current government policies, in order promote "freedom of choice" across municipal, provincial and national audiences in both official languages. Since the group was speaking out against government policy, most traditional media channels were unavailable to them. They were therefore faced with the challenge of finding a new avenue by which to reach a broad audience with their freedom of choice message.

tactics
The goal of the campaign was simple, yet challenging - mychoice.ca needed an open and accessible forum to present their message to a broad audience using extremely cost-effective means. Since online communities are considerably less expensive and more inclusive than traditional media outlets such as television or radio, bv02 decided this medium presented the best opportunity for success. We designed a self-sustainable, viral web/email campaign to display an "alternative" message using humour. A series of mock, public service announcements based on current policy making issues such as recycling, energy/water consumption and obesity were launched on the mychoice.ca website as they were simultaneously promoted via a permission based email campaign. The viral effect of the campaign was maintained by including a "send to a friend" feature whereby visitors could download the vignette locally for repeated viewing or pass the message along to others in support of the cause.

results
Since the launch of the campaign, the mychoice.ca community has grown to include close to 15 000 like-minded individuals. The combined impact of this unified voice of course far out-weighs that of the individual. By virtue of the fact that the mychoice community continues to grow and thrive, policy makers are forced to take into account the opinions expressed by this segment of society.

Let the numbers speak for themselves. The three public service announcement parodies have been extensively downloaded. Statistically speaking, after six months, the "recycle" clip has 19593 downloads, while the "gorilla" and "obesity" messages have garnered 30948 and 12980 respectively. bv02's ability to leverage the ever-expanding popularity of electronically shared video clips, and to channel the results into a meaningful voice in the crowded public policy arena has proved to be a resounding success. This leading edge campaign, in conjunction with tried and true web strategy and implementation techniques have catapulted "mychoice" to the forefront of their chosen field. Let bv02 be your choice as it is for mychoice.ca.