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The Gabriola Community Health Centre Foundation (GHCF) is rooted in community action and collaboration. Built with broad support and funding from island residents, it reflects Gabriolans’ deep commitment to accessible, community-centered care. Over the years, dedicated doctors and healthcare professionals have served the island with compassion and resilience.
But Gabriola now faces growing pressure. With an aging population and notable income disparity, healthcare demand is rising just as Canada faces a doctor shortage. In response, Gabriola didn’t wait—it launched a recruitment campaign as bold and quirky as the island itself, designed to reflect its unique spirit, and attract a physician who’d feel right at home.
What We Were Hired to Address
What We Were Hired to Address
Gabriola Island’s population is both older than the provincial average and marked by significant income disparity—trends that place growing pressure on local healthcare services. At the same time, a nationwide physician shortage made recruitment increasingly difficult, particularly for rural and remote areas.
GHCF faced a critical need: to attract new physicians to the island while highlighting the extraordinary lifestyle, supportive community, and unique work-life balance that Gabriola offers. Rather than frame rural healthcare as a challenge, the Foundation wanted to present Gabriola as an opportunity—a beautiful, connected place to live, work, and belong.
Research / Strategy
Research / Strategy
Success for the campaign was defined as:
Building nationwide awareness of physician and healthcare career opportunities on Gabriola Island.
Ensuring potential recruits were well-informed and inspired by the island lifestyle to support long-term retention.
Attracting qualified candidates and ensuring a smooth process for community connection and onboarding.
Creating a visible and sustainable digital platform for continued healthcare recruitment.
In partnership with GHCF, we developed a strategy rooted in brand differentiation, community engagement, and authentic storytelling. Our approach focused on amplifying the island’s best qualities: its natural beauty, artistic spirit, kind neighbours, and balanced pace of life. We engaged locals directly in the campaign, ensuring the message came from the community itself.
Actions / Execution
Actions / Execution
Our work with GHCF included the following:
Brand Platform Development: Created a non-traditional recruitment identity with playful, earthy visuals that broke from the clinical norm—capturing Gabriola’s unique charm and lifestyle appeal.
Website Design: Developed beourdoctor.ca, a custom website designed to engage prospective doctors through approachable design, practical information, and direct contact tools. The content was fully search-optimised and structured to encourage exploration and personal connection.
Community-Driven Content: Produced a series of testimonial videos, featuring residents and healthcare professionals, to authentically convey what it means to live and work on Gabriola. Locals also submitted personal stories, shared videos, and participated in outreach.
Social Media Strategy: Delivered a three-phase approach across Facebook and LinkedIn, combining paid ads and organic content to target healthcare professionals in British Columbia and Ontario.
Technical Marketing Tools: Implemented SEO strategies, Google Analytics tracking, and social media insights to monitor performance and inform iterative improvements.
Inquiry Coordination: Worked with GHCF to ensure there was a structured, personal response process when prospective doctors reached out—so the campaign not only sparked interest, but also deepened engagement.
Outcomes / Results
Outcomes / Results
The Be Our Doctor campaign successfully turned physician recruitment into a community-wide expression of island pride. It drew national attention, created measurable results, and built a sustainable model for future recruitment.
Key results included:
88,592 people reached, primarily in BC and Ontario.
22,470 campaign actions, including over 21,000 video views and 776 direct link clicks.
A remarkable 8,749% increase in online conversations about doctor recruitment.
392+ unique website visitors, with an average session time of 2 minutes and 46 seconds—well above industry benchmarks.
GHCF’s Facebook following grew to over 1,800 followers within three months, establishing a strong digital community for future campaigns.
Most importantly, the campaign mobilised Gabriolans themselves, transforming recruitment into a grassroots movement. By aligning island values with bold creative execution, GHCF built a “pitch and catch” strategy that readied the community before generating national interest—proving that small islands can think big, work together, and create real impact.
See the recruitment website
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