The best pairing in history (until your eyes met this page)

Okay, let’s face it: the words “Chamber of Commerce” don’t sound that exciting on their own. They might make you think of starchy suits, and long meetings around even longer wooden tables. But much like “the times” Bob Dylan sang about, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce has indeed a-changed since its founding more than 130 years ago. 

In 2022, infused with a new generation of leadership and vision for membership, the CCC had set their sights in a bold new direction. They were ready to move forward and give 110% to the city’s entrepreneurs. 

There was just one issue: they didn’t quite know how to get the message to them.

The benefits of being better together

We started with the core principles of the CCC: networking. Advocacy. Helping businesses reach their full potential. Good old-fashioned local pride. We drafted up a few dozen ideas to think about. We whittled away anything that didn’t quite land, and kept the ones that had legs. One of them even involved a Gritty-style mascot, because that would surely get people talking. (It didn’t pan out – maybe next time.)

We brought CCC into a room. We presented our thoughts. They unanimously landed on a winner: they wanted Calgary businesses to know that they were all better with the Chamber on their side.

Some things are better together…and all businesses are better with us

See that headline right above this line? Under that unifying banner, we started to flesh out all the things that were comparable to businesses + CCC. Peanut butter and jam. Hockey sticks and pucks. Milk and cookies. All of them work much better together than they ever could on their own.

Our in-house designers put together some spot-on creative illustrations of these pairs. They went up on billboards, showed up on social posts, and even turned into some ridiculously popular socks that were given away at CCC events. 

The campaign launch coincided with Small Business Week 2022, tying the Chamber’s mission, vision, and community mandate together all in one place. All the assets sent people back to the Chamber’s website and information seminars, where they could easily see the value of having a full network to help them navigate the realities of running a business in YYC. 

And you know what? Even now, our Better Together socks are still great conversation starters. We can see why it works.