Hinchcliff & Lee take the lead in StepsAway Campaign

First we wish to thank the 31 businesses that have jumped on board with the StepsAway campaign.  We have much to celebrate in Port Hope and the StepsAway program is working to communicate the pride we have in our community and reach out, beyond our region and invite those that love small-town Ontario, to come by for a visit.

Initially Limelight developed a concept and produced a variety of video commercials to launch the campaign. These are meant to be a foundation to a longer-term campaign that will work within both new and traditional media.

We've heard it before, Port Hope is a splendid place to live. Many residents earn their living here. There are certainly a number of new families as they have migrated to new homes. And still some have moved here to retire. They have divested themselves of their holdings in urban centres - namely Toronto, downsizing and have moved to Port Hope. You may ask why? There isn't a simple answer to the question - in fact the answers are defined on a number of levels. What we do know is that people that do choose Port Hope defend its honour with limitless passion that further defines the town; the region; the community.  And this is where StepsAway receives it's inspiration – from the very people that live here.

We derive the inspiration from the unique story Port Hope has to tell and while we help to energise a story-telling movement with this campaign the commercials are meerly the cover of the book when it comes to volume of interesting tales that can be shared.

To promote Port Hope, we look to celebrate with our friends and neighbours their accomplishments - and not only in business but in service to “community”.  Most everyone that lives in Port Hope extend their sense of pride by doing good things within the community to make it a better place and in many cases, great things.

StepsAway is a concept to “naval gaze”. It's first for the people that make up this community. As the concept grows and the stories start to emerge they help to colour the meaning of community. It's a grass roots campaign. Yes… grass roots, as there is no need for pretense. People live in Port Hope because of its charm. And fortunately the town can boast about it's unique blend of heavy and light industry. Those that have chosen to make Port Hope home do so for lifestyle reasons, but Port Hope is only a short distance to major markets - namely Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa acting as a further catalyst to remain here.

Promotion is a funny thing. On one hand people have moved here to get away from the rat race and yet here we are attempting to lure people our way. Like so many communities, people don't like change (until it happens and then they wonder what they did without it). Port Hope's economy needs support to remain sustainable – support from within and support from our visitors. StepsAway is designed to help engage both parties.

Initially the commercials that were created were meant for a fairly insular audience - the movie-goer. Try as they might our beloved Capitol Theatre doesn't receive a lot of audience beyond their borders for movies, yet they have a great roster of films. But for live performances the Capitol is second to only a few theatre as it plays to over 70,000 annually. Through a most-appreciated strategic alliance, the Capitol has agreed to screen the StepsAway commercials prior movies on film night… well that was the way it was supposed to work until they saw them. Now the Capitol will screen the commercials prior movies, prior live performances and during intermissions and in their lounge area, in the box office. This decision was made within a few moments of airing some of the preliminary commecials with theatre management stating, “We just have to find a way to run these (commercials) during our live shows as well”.

We have a concept but the acceptance has already expanded beyond the reach of the theatre. The commercials are available to all that wish to screen them on Vimeo or on YouTube. People are linking them to their websites and using social media to send them to friends and family and in some cases - customers.

The concept has only just starting. Limelight has developed other components including a web presence at www.StepsAway.ca; new print-ad layouts incorporating the StepsAway theme; small, unobtrusive signage, and currently they are working to generate radio commercials. But this is not all far more will be revealed as more people adopt this tremendous Port Hope community effort. Please feel free to speak to Duncan MacKinnon or anyone at Limelight about the growing plans surrounding StepsAway.