Case Study: Reading Club – Digital Campaign for Literacy
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About the Client
The Toronto Reading Club is a city-wide initiative aimed at promoting literacy, community connection, and a lifelong love of reading—especially among children, youth, and underserved communities. With strategic partners like TD Bank, a longtime supporter of literacy programs, and the (TPL), the campaign had access to deep institutional trust and expansive physical presence across the city.
For their summer campaign, the Reading Club needed a digital strategy that could extend their reach beyond library walls, engage Toronto’s diverse communities online, and increase participation in programming by both kids and parents.
The Challenge
While the Reading Club had high brand equity through libraries and TD’s existing sponsorship, its online visibility and digital engagement were limited. Past campaigns had relied heavily on posters, bookmarks, and in-branch promotion. Post-pandemic, with digital habits becoming central, the organization needed to pivot its outreach strategy.
Objectives included:
Drive registrations to the Summer Reading Challenge
Increase awareness of free programs offered at Toronto Public Library branches
Engage parents and educators online to act as amplifiers
Celebrate the program’s diversity and accessibility—reaching multilingual and lower-income families
Measure ROI and campaign performance in real-time across platforms
They needed a scalable digital strategy—from creative to analytics—that could meet the needs of both a civic organization and a major banking sponsor.
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The Solution
Pungo designed and executed a multi-channel digital campaign rooted in data, storytelling, and civic impact. Key components included:
🎯 Strategy & Audience Targeting
Defined priority personas: parents (ages 28–45), educators, youth librarians, and Gen Z influencers
Created geo-targeted segments across Toronto’s high-density neighborhoods, with tailored messaging for newcomers and ESL households
Focused on multicultural media placements and bilingual ad creatives (English/French, with support for Mandarin, Urdu, and Tagalog)
📣 Creative & Content
Designed a vibrant campaign visual identity aligned with both TD and TPL brand guidelines
Produced a series of short-form videos, parent testimonials, animation reels, and static graphics for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts
Developed “Reading Hero” stories—short, user-generated content pieces showcasing young readers and families participating in the program
Created digital toolkits for librarians and school partners to promote the program through their own channels
📈 Paid Media Execution
Launched targeted ad campaigns across Google Display, Meta, and TikTok
Focused media budget on high-CTR formats and mid-funnel engagement tactics (e.g., interactive Instagram Stories, carousel ads)
A/B tested calls to action (e.g., “Join the Reading Adventure” vs “Start Your Child’s Reading Journey”)
Optimized landing pages for mobile-first conversions and tracked sign-ups with UTM tagging and GA4
🧠 Measurement & Analytics
Implemented real-time dashboards in Google Looker Studio
Set up pixel-based retargeting for site visitors who didn’t convert
Tracked registrations, click-through rates, demographic breakdowns, and engagement heatmaps across each touchpoint
Delivered weekly reports to stakeholders at TD and TPL with narrative insights
Results
Over the 8-week campaign period, Pungo helped the Toronto Reading Club:
Increase program sign-ups by 212% compared to the previous summer
Reach over 500,000 Toronto-area residents with targeted digital impressions
Achieve a 3.8% average click-through rate (CTR) on paid media (industry benchmark: ~1%)
Cut cost-per-registration by 52% through continuous optimization
Drive significant organic engagement from influencers and parent educators who reshared campaign assets
Achieve campaign lift in underrepresented neighborhoods, particularly in Scarborough and North York
“This was more than a campaign—it was a city-wide celebration of literacy, amplified through digital. Pungo helped us modernize our outreach without losing our community-first identity.”
Alice Timmins
-Program Director
Looking Ahead
- Due to the campaign’s success, the Toronto Reading Club and its partners are now exploring:
- Year-round digital storytelling to maintain engagement between summers
- Expansion of the Reading Hero video series into schools and community centers
- A centralized digital hub for reading challenges, event calendars, and interactive reading logs
- In-app gamification and rewards tied to digital check-ins and progress badges
Why It Mattered
This campaign demonstrated how even legacy community programs can evolve digitally—meeting modern families where they are while preserving core values of accessibility, equity, and joy. Pungo’s role was to make that transition not just possible—but measurable, beautiful, and lasting.
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