In March 2020, Ontario was entering its first wave of COVID-19. The virus was taking over public life, and the Government of Ontario was looking to create a new public health campaign at an incredible scale. The goal was to reach as many people in Ontario as quickly as possible, informing them about the physical distancing guidelines and stay-at-home order.
Unlike most campaigns, the entire population of Ontario was the target audience, which meant the information needed to be clear, easily understood and accessible. As part of the in-house creative services team, we were responsible for designing and implementing the campaign. We created a flexible design system with predetermined colours, templates and icons. To combat the many sources of misinformation, the campaign was closely tied to the Ontario brand, lending it authority and making it recognized as an official source of valid information.
As the pandemic dragged on, we needed to address the inevitable fatigue that would set in with such a long campaign. We created a library of illustrations with subtle, human touches like unique hairstyles, clothing and accessories in the figures. This approach balanced the serious government messaging to ensure the campaign's tone remained reassuring, friendly and hopeful. As the situation improved, we transitioned to brighter colours with more detailed illustrations and added visual charm. The campaign exceeded performance expectations across all channels. Our social media impressions exceeded our goal by 850%
The start of the COVID-19 pandemic was a truly unique experience in my career. Almost overnight, I had to jump from working on small marketing campaigns to working remotely to plan, design, and produce a massive multi-million dollar provincial marketing campaign. By necessity, our team approached this enormous challenge with the attitude of a design-a-thon as we shared work in progress, iterated constantly, and trusted each other more than ever. I had to wear many hats during this time, drawing new illustrations, developing and coding multi-lingual digital banner ads, and saving countless ad sizes for community newspapers and billboards. Our team of seven produced more than 3,000 pieces of COVID-related content in 2020 alone.
© Government of Ontario