What’s at Stake Intellectual Freedom campaign
Toronto Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
TPL set out to raise awareness and engage the public on the difficult topic of intellectual freedom. We knew we wanted to create an advocacy campaign that would easy to understand, conversational, and relatable to people who weren’t familiar with the grounding principles of intellectual freedom. We also knew that, in order to achieve success, we needed to adopt a true collaborative spirit in both marketing and programming. In other words, we needed to ensure that all stakeholders across the organization were aligned at the very start of the project. Working with our Toronto Public Library Foundation, we pitched the idea to a donor and secured funding to cover our programming and marketing costs. The What’s at Stake campaign consisted of two streams: a program series and an advocacy campaign.
Challenge/Opportunity
Libraries are facing increasing intellectual freedom challenges, not just with physical materials like books and movies, but also with programs, e-content, Internet access, room bookings, and exhibits. Intellectual freedom challenges can limit access to information, suppress civic engagement, and silence voices, especially those of more marginalized communities. As a result, our access to information is slowly being narrowed, affecting many aspects of our lives: our social networks, work, class structures, education, how we see each other, our civil liberties, and even the functioning of our democracy. How do we make these issues and concepts tangible and relevant, and engage people in conversations that will help with their understanding of the issues and their participation in the solutions? And how can we help people understand the importance and value of libraries as protectors and defenders of intellectual freedom? Libraries are uniquely positioned to have these conversations.
Key Elements of Innovation
The programming and marketing teams worked collaboratively and cross-functionally in the development of the series and campaign. Discussions with marketing helped shape programming decisions and direction. Similarly, an in-depth understanding of the programming assisted the marketing department in developing a campaign that resonated and reflected the intent and spirit of the programming. We utilized a Content Matrix to map all of the versions of copy and content by channel, ensuring that we had the right message, in the right format, going to the right audience across the right channels. New programming innovations included a cross-Canada hybrid event specifically designed for library staff, with then-president of the ALA, Tracie D. Hall and TPL City Librarian Vickery Bowles. Our in-person Civil Forums were also new, and achieved multiple objectives, providing more intimate and engaging opportunities for attendees to explore and gain understanding about intellectual freedom issues.
Achieved Outcomes
Awareness: Through our paid, partnered and organic media, the campaign delivered over 50 million impressions, and was cost effective, delivering low cost per impressions across most channels.
Engagement: Measuring both our social and paid social media, as well as open rates for e-communications, we had a total engagement of over 133,000. We also saw engagement on those channels in the form of conversation and discussion, including positive comments and negative comments. But whether the comments were positive or negative, people (for the most part) were respectfully engaging – with TPL and with each other. Exactly the engagement and discussion we wanted to spark.
Conversion: Through program attendance (both physical and virtual), as well as program replay viewing and tpl.ca/At/Stake page views, we had a total conversion of over 85,000. Both attendance and engagement at the programs and events were strong, with multiple sold out events and positive and engaging comments from attendees.
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