Heartwarming Stories in Alfred's New Chartwell Retirement Spots

Chartwell Retirement Residences has launched a new national marketing campaign focused on the theme, Make us part of your story. Featuring unscripted first-person testimonials from its residents, the campaign offers an honest and authentic perspective of retirement living and the transition from what can be a difficult decision to a newly-embraced and rewarding lifestyle.  

“This campaign is about speaking to our audience with genuine understanding about life events that may lead to the consideration of retirement living,” said Maxime Camerlain, Vice President Marketing at Chartwell. “The Make us part of your story platform conveys that life in a retirement residence is about new experiences, new friends and lifelong pursuits coming together. Ultimately, we want people to know that Chartwell can help make people’s lives better and that the outcome of their decision to live in a retirement residences just might exceed their original expectations.”

In order to reach a wider audience under a consolidated national and bilingual brand impression, the company worked with Alfred Communications, a creative agency based in Montreal. Working closely with Chartwell, Alfred developed a fully-integrated communication platform fuelled by their initial observation that residents and staff at Chartwell share a high level of respect and admiration for each other, while valuing the uniqueness of every individual. 

“To set Chartwell apart, we wanted to go beyond the idea of retirement homes as a collection of suites and services. We wanted to give the residents a voice to tell their story as well as how they have embraced this change in their lives,” said Jean-François Bernier, President and Creative Director at Alfred. “This heartfelt and human-centric approach counters many of society’s misconceptions about retirement living. ‘Welcoming each person’s uniqueness’ became the cornerstone of the new brand impression and the advertising campaign we developed.”

The new campaign is being deployed on multiple customer touch points, beginning September 15, with national TV, print, digital and social media initiatives. It features actual Chartwell residents and is built around a mix of above-the-line and digital marketing efforts planned to support the new Make us part of your story platform. Sixty-second TV spots will be used to launch the campaign in English and French across Canada as well as print ads, direct mail, digital displays and the launch of Chartwell’s social media presence.