Farm Life | Spring 2008
4-H updates its image.
By Kate Rowland
4-H Canada looked within its own ranks when it decided the time had come to give the organization a new and more vibrant face.
From across the country, youth aged 16 to 21 vied for spots on the Canadian 4-H Council's Youth Advertising Team (YAT), which was charged with designing a new awareness campaign for the organization's 2006/2007 season.
"The campaign goal was to dust off the venerable institution's image, and make it relevant today," says Derrick Rozdeba, Bayer CropScience's manager of integrated communications. Rozdeba, a volunteer member of the national 4-H council's board, also holds a seat on the 4-H public relations committee in charge of the YAT initiative.
Nearly 100 years old in Canada, 4-H has suffered in recent times from miscommunication about what it does. "Membership has been dropping consistently since the 1970s," Rozdeba says, citing a problem common to many national youth organizations today. "For 4-H, it's a perception issue - that it's for farm kids and only farm kids." The YAT campaign, like many other programs within today's 4-H, took the issue back to its members for a solution, focusing on a common theme in the organization: learning by doing.
To be considered for the team, interested 4-Hers had to submit a three-minute video and resume. Based on the almost 30 videos submitted, eight YAT members were selected nationally, from Qualicum Beach, British Columbia to Port Williams, Nova Scotia. Then the team went to work.
Meeting first in Toronto in April 2006, top Canadian youth marketing and communications agency Youthography took the YAT group through an analysis of the organization, examining 4-H's strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Once armed, the group began developing key strategies for use in a creative session in Calgary in June.
That session, led by the Canadian 4-H Council's agency partner, AdFarm, resulted in a radio script written, produced and performed by YAT members, as well as print advertising. "The team came up with the whole concept of escaping and doing something cool," Rozdeba says.
"The YAT campaign was very successful, and well received by everyone involved," says Chris Forrest, the Canadian 4-H Council's communications manager. The campaign ran from November 2006 to the end of March 2007, and the team was kept intact as a focus group for the duration of the campaign. Entitled Make Your Escape, the campaign invited youth to escape their routines and discover a world of fun and friendship in 4-H. It also featured a micro-website with interactive games and access to more information about 4-H.
As well, YAT charted a new career path for some of its members. "Because of their direct 4-H involvement in this project, it set some of them on a career course in communications, public relations and marketing," Forrest says. "One Alberta YAT delegate went directly into marketing, and another from Saskatchewan is now heading into her second year in business marketing."
YAT is now disbanded, but Forrest does not discount something equally creative being launched by the 4-H council in the future. "We are looking at other options over the next year or two. We want to do some innovative outreach," he says.
