Onondaga Camp is one of Canada’s oldest, privately owned residential camps and has earned a reputation for being a tier one co-educational camp. However, over the past 4 years, like many camps, Onondaga has noticed a decided trend towards kids registering for shorter stays, which has had a measurable effect on recruitment. In 2008, AmoebaCorp was asked to help Onondaga with its branding, including provision of a ground-up brand positioning, a brand identity system as well as design application to virtually all of their key communication tools – website, recruitment package, print advertising and trade show booth design. Design efforts began with a facilitated ground floor session which helped uncover several rich category, consumer and brand insights.
We also conducted an exhaustive competitive audit, all of which uncovered an important macro trend effecting consumerism in general that we felt Onondaga could take advantage of – the shift away from coveting/consuming “things” and towards collecting/consuming unique experiences and stories in appreciation of the value they bring to personal growth and development. All work developed, delivered against positioning Onondaga as the camp that specializes in championing personal growth. Creative took advantage both of rich visual assets the camp already had (primary brand colour, iconic tree image) as well as experiential photography we recommended be core to all recruitment materials for the important role it can play in helping kids imagine themselves there.