Go RVing Canada is hitting the road with its first new agency partner in seven years, selecting Broken Heart Love Affair and its content and production arm Lifelong Crush as its AOR. The announcement follows a summer review involving five agencies.
“For us it was just good governance to take a look around,” said Go RVing Canada president Chris Mahony of the decision to hold the review. The review included incumbent agency doug&partners, which produced three waves of creative for Go RVing Canada.
The move also reunites Go RVing Canada with BHLA’s co-founders Denise Rossetto and Todd Mackie, the team that created the organization’s “Bring Back Wildhood” brand platform while with doug&partners in 2015. “Quite candidly that helped [in the selection], but it was not everything,” said Mahony, who said that meeting with the rest of the BHLA team convinced him the agency was the right fit.
“You can see their passion for wanting to be connected to the business, but it’s that powerhouse of creativity and strategy that they possess [was a factor in their decision].”
“It’s super exciting to be reunited,” said Mackie, BHLA partner and chief creative officer. “We really fell in love with the brand years ago when we first pitched it. It was actually quite difficult leaving it behind because we poured so much into the Wildhood platform and we wanted to be part of its evolution.
“It’s always extra rewarding when a client wants to work with you again. It shows you’re doing something right.”
BHLA has carved out a reputation for crafting bold, ambitious marketing that breaks through category norms, although Mahony said the current plan is to retain the Wildhood brand platform. “We think that Wildhood has a lot of legs still, so we will more than likely maintain it in some form or another,” he said.
“I do, however, think there’s more opportunity for us to emotionally draw from Wildhood and get back to social tensions again,” he added. “The initial Wildhood had those social tensions, like when we were talking about what kids wanted to be, and we held onto some of that throughout.
“But I think we’re looking to go back to that in a post-pandemic world where we know there’s been a significant impact to society and on how we perceive travel and the outdoors.”
Go RVing is the latest in a string of new account wins for the nearly two-year-old BHLA, which has added the Royal Ontario Museum, Air Miles and Kruger Products to its client roster in the past 12 months.
“I think the new business success has come from our single minded focus on brand transformation and brand domination,” said Mackie. “The brands that have come to us are seeking exactly that and they’re ready to really commit to doing the type of work that stands out and creates an emotional connection.”
Established in 1997, Go RVing Canada is a coalition of RV manufacturers, dealers and campground operators committed to be the voice of RV’ing in Canada. The first work from BHLA is expected to debut in 2023, said Mahony.
