A new marketing campaign aims to build national confidence in how oil and gas is produced in Canada by presenting Canadians with a label of origin for an energy sector they can be proud of.
The Made the Canadian Way campaign, launched this week by the Canadian Energy Centre (CEC), is focused on giving people across the country the answers they are seeking for how domestic energy producers are meeting the high environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance standards Canadians expect.
“This campaign supports our vital mandate to promote Canadian energy as the preferred choice for the growing demand for responsibly produced energy,” said Tom Olsen, the CEC’s Chief Executive Officer.
“And it comes at a time when Canadians are thinking more and more about the need for domestic energy security and increasing self-supply.”
However, Canadians also continue to seek assurances that domestic energy producers are continuously raising the bar in efforts to shrink their environmental footprint, reduce emissions and include Indigenous communities in decision-making and economically beneficial resource development partnerships.
The five-month campaign is built on the value Canadians place in ensuring any product they consume or purchase – whether that be coffee, diamonds, cosmetics, clothing – is sourced by countries meeting the highest environmental, human rights and labour standards.
The campaign will include national television, digital, display and social media advertising across the country, with a focus on reaching high density population areas in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
Advertising will direct Canadians to the campaign website MadetheCanadianWay.ca where people can learn more about Canada’s energy industry and its practices, innovations, and collaborative efforts in addressing important concerns such as emissions reduction.
“We know there is a desire by Canadians to better understand how Canada’s energy sector is helping to secure their future in a more sustainable and socially responsible way,” said Olsen.
“We want to help them learn more by showcasing how investments in technology and innovation within the energy sector result in producing the most preferred energy source in the world, and how important oil and gas will continue to be in the transformation to a lower carbon economy.”
The approximately $6 million campaign is the largest to date of the CEC’s marketing efforts and comes at a time when Canadians are more receptive than ever to better understand the balance between economy, environment, energy supply, security and price.
Global demand for both oil and natural gas is back near pre-pandemic levels and rising, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Based on the world’s current trajectory, the International Energy Agency projects oil demand in 2050 will be 103 million barrels per day, compared to 96.6 million barrels per day in 2019. Meanwhile, world natural gas demand is expected to reach 5.1 trillion cubic meters in 2050, up from 4.1 trillion cubic meters in 2019.
The campaign follows a highly successful CEC awareness and advocacy campaign launched in March in key U.S. markets that further asserted Canada as the solution to help meet and secure long-term North American energy demand.
The campaign, which asks Americans to ‘Look North’ for energy security targeted creative advertising and messaging to thought leaders that appeared in several key U.S. print and online publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post as well as the Google display network.
The advertising drove more than 1,068,625 visits to the campaign website canadaisthesolution.com, with more than half of those visits from direct traffic (visitors who arrived at the site by typing the website URL directly, rather than being redirected from another source).
Plans are underway to extend that campaign based on research that indicates Americans are very receptive to the message that supply of energy beyond what is produced domestically, should come from Canada, a trusted and responsible energy partner.
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