I think that goes to the point of the overall communications coordination of your entire campaign. If you're a department working on the Canada learning bond, it's a very specific target audience you're trying to reach. I would say that not in all circumstances would you necessarily get government funding in any given year, but you have to take a look at all of your activities.
What we're noticing is, as you noted, advertising is one way, and it's not always the only way or even always successful. We have had campaigns where we did not reach the people we needed to reach. It has to be complementary to other activities.
Social media is a tool that departments are using more and more in these types of campaigns. Direct intervention is often required when you're in remote communities. It's not just about telling people about a particular program; it's about educating them on how they can get involved and what they need to do to benefit from it. An ad won't necessarily do that.
Our advice to departments is actually to take a look holistically at their engagement stakeholder strategy. What is their advertising strategy if they do have funding in that particular year? What is their communications outreach to these specialized communities? It's really about identifying that target audience and using everything in their tool box to be able to support that community or support that group to raise awareness.
I would say it's not a simple answer, but it's actually a more holistic view of how to communicate with key interlocutors.
