Camp Arowhon

Since 1934, Camp Arowhon has been an indus­try leader over 3 gen­er­a­tions of fam­ily own­er­ship. At the time we began work­ing with them, they felt they were work­ing too hard to main­tain their wait­ing list and attract the right staff.

How do you stand out in an indus­try where everyone’s good? — Prove it.

How could they dif­fer­en­ti­ate from their com­peti­tors in an indus­try where every­one is (almost by def­i­n­i­tion) swell folks who claim to offer a safe, nur­tur­ing envi­ron­ment. On the sur­face, most have sim­i­lar facil­i­ties, processes and prac­tices. And there are many camps in Ontario seek­ing the same demographics.

Research: What’s the conversation?

We inter­viewed cur­rent and for­mer campers, par­ents and staff and were rewarded with a wealth of insight.

New campers spoke of belong­ing, return­ing campers spoke of learn­ing, par­ents told us how their child man­i­fested con­fi­dence that lasted a lit­tle longer after each sum­mer until it became a part of them. Alumni had for­mer camp-friends in their wed­ding par­ties, and cred­ited sev­eral aspects of the camp for devel­op­ing skills they now used in their per­sonal and pro­fes­sional lives.

Strat­egy: How can we influ­ence the conversation?

Camp Arowhon began to take shape for us as a place we wished we’d gone.

One of the Camp Direc­tors is an anti-bullying activist. Staff are equipped with a binder full of exer­cises to help them keep track of, under­stand and pos­i­tively influ­ence their camper’s relationships.

Campers get to spend their time devel­op­ing a sense of self as well as their activity-related skills instead of bag­gage. Staff learn peo­ple man­age­ment skills they can apply to their careers.

We devel­oped a strat­egy to com­mu­ni­cate Camp Arowhon’s deeper value as a pur­veyor of ‘sum­mers that last a life­time’ by reveal­ing 6 pil­lars of the Camp Arowhon experience.

  • Staff: Only 1/10 staff inter­viewed are hired. Staff are equipped with a tool kit to mea­sure camper progress
  • Set­ting: In the heart of pris­tine and beau­ti­ful Algo­nquin park
  • Activ­i­ties: Skill-based approach
  • His­tory: 3 gen­er­a­tions of lead­er­ship, each with the per­se­ver­ance of founder Lillian
  • Phi­los­o­phy: “skills and self con­fi­dence that last a lifetime”
  • Com­mu­nity: No one is left behind

Design: Define how it will look, work and/or how it will get done

The strat­egy was first man­i­fest in an aes­thetic over­haul start­ing with their iden­tity logo and sta­tion­ary. From there, we began to man­i­fest Camp Arowhon’s dif­fer­ence where the rub­ber meets the road for each of their audi­ences; in the lowly forms par­ents have so much con­tact with. In the con­ver­sa­tion and mate­ri­als pro­vided to prospec­tive staff. In the website-a source of pride for all alumni.

Pro­duc­tion: Bring the exer­cise to life

When you think about it, the forms are an impor­tant touch-point. the reg­is­tra­tion form is where you sign up to ship your kids off. It’s also where you agree to pay. It seems obvi­ous that rein­forc­ing Camp Arowhon’s com­mit­ment to minu­tiae should come across here.

Our research showed the kind of prospec­tive staff mem­ber who could han­dle the “home­work” required were also more career ori­ented. So along with the updated look, we refo­cussed the mes­sag­ing in the mate­ri­als tar­get­ing them to con­nect with peo­ple who wanted to develop impor­tant skills in a fun setting.

Revi­sion: Assess the results, revise the plan, and reiterate

So far, we haven’t redesigned any­thing we’ve cre­ated since 2003, but the feed­back and learn­ing have informed the design of other com­po­nents, like a slideshow and trade-show booth.

Go to Camp Arowhon. Tell them we sent you.