A Gastown storefront featuring colourful #GastownTomorrow campaign window graphics as a passerby walks by, community engagement branding created by Cause+Affect for the Gastown Business Improvement Association.

Gastown Tomorrow

Client:
Gastown Business Improvement Association
Date:
2021
Sector:
Services:
  • Brand,
  • Campaigns,
  • Strategy,
  • Environmental

Insight into how public realm changes may affect Gastown business members, workers, residents, and visitors.

211 online feedback submissions

The Gastown Business Improvement Society (GBIS) asked Cause+Affect to develop a community engagement brand and campaign that would increase awareness and participation in an Urban Design Study (by Ph5 Architecture) to further understand potential opportunities to make positive, functional, social, economic, and cultural changes to the neighbourhood.

A digital display in a Gastown venue showing the #GastownTomorrow campaign message 'old soul, new spirit', part of the community engagement branding by Cause+Affect.
A masked community member reviewing a colourful printed #GastownTomorrow campaign brochure at a table, part of the engagement materials designed by Cause+Affect.

#GastownTomorrow

We created the campaign name and developed a branded community engagement platform for the GBIS to deepen its relationship with its members and broader community, helping shape the decisions and design that affect the places they live and work.

A hand holding a smartphone showing a colourful #GastownTomorrow social media post, part of the digital campaign created by Cause+Affect.

Community ambassadors

The strategy we proposed focused on the curation of Gastown creatives to participate as campaign ambassadors by sharing their own visions of the neighbourhood through sketches and stories. These compelling visions were the catalysts behind the successful community engagement totaling the following:

  • Total reach: 266,568 
  • Comments received/shared: 434 (+19.56%) 
  • New ideas shared in comments: 211 
  • Website: Pageviews: 1,372, New users: 681 
  • 196 QR code scans 
  • 81 people took 30 minutes to complete the survey 
  • 23 media hits were negotiated and secured across print, digital, and radio
A Gastown campaign ambassador holding a hand-drawn sketch of their vision for the neighbourhood, framed with #GastownTomorrow brand colour accents designed by Cause+Affect.
A Gastown creative seated at her studio workspace, featured as a #GastownTomorrow campaign ambassador with brand colour accents designed by Cause+Affect.
A hand holding a takeaway coffee cup wrapped in a branded #GastownTomorrow cup sleeve in a Gastown alley, a custom local-business treatment designed by Cause+Affect.

Customizing community amenities

In addition to digital engagement, we worked with local businesses and customized public spaces with branded treatments to further create awareness of the opportunities for public input on the future of a much-loved community.  

Custom branded illustrations

For a campaign launched in the month of April, the fresh and optimistic colour palette aligned with the feeling in the air while the custom crow illustrations brought personality and authentic charm to a neighbourhood that prides itself on uniqueness and quality design.

A Gastown streetscape with colourfully painted public seating and patio treatments, part of the #GastownTomorrow public realm activation designed by Cause+Affect.
A historic Gastown brick laneway brightened with a colourful geometric pavement mural, a public space treatment from the #GastownTomorrow campaign by Cause+Affect.
A custom crow illustration graphic reading 'old soul, new spirit' with five community suggestions for a people-centric Maple Tree Square, campaign artwork designed by Cause+Affect for #GastownTomorrow.

The #GastownTomorrow campaign was so successful that the GBIS decided to integrate the brand within their ongoing efforts to connect with the community on public realm and design-related topics, with the potential of mounting a Gastown Tomorrow community forum for ongoing dialogue. 

With experience in community building and brand expertise, as well as a history of facilitating Gastown’s neighbourhood vision, we engaged Cause+Affect to develop a community engagement campaign to increase awareness of a recent urban design study. From campaign design to a members-driven strategy, the finished product injected the exact right tone and visual flavour to garner attention, support and participation with our neighbourhood businesses and public stakeholders.

Wally Wargolet, Executive Director

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