A new campaign from GTA-based Earth Rangers is reaching out to kids for assistance in saving Canada’s wildlife population and the biodiversity of its habitats.

The new campaign, called ‘Bring Back the Wild,’ is aiming to engage Canadian youth with the effort to save wilderness habitats by giving them the tools to start fundraising campaigns of their own. Kids can go to BringBackTheWild.ca and start their own fundraising campaign by choosing an animal, setting a fundraising goal, and then creating their own online avatar to help reach that goal.

The campaign is being promoted to Canadian youth through a partnership with Corus Entertainment’s YTV channel and YTV.com. The year-long campaign will kick off in two phases, the first of which starts this week with 10- and 30-second spots and special segments in which the host of after-school programming block The Zone, Carlos, will visit Earth Rangers headquarters and learn about animals and biodiversity.

The second phase, starting May 17, will see the debut of four different 30-second PSAs each featuring a different animal. At the same time, a 60-second PSA will promote the ‘Bring Back the Wild’ contest, in which kids who sign up to be Earth Rangers will get a chance to win an eco-adventure with their family. Although the contest-specific PSA is limited to the second phase of the campaign, the other PSAs and host integrations will continue until April 2011.

Earth Rangers approached YTV with the idea of a partnership, as they felt it was the best media outlet to reach its ‘tween’ (eight- to 12-year-old) demographic, Lucie Lalumiere, VP interactive, Earth Rangers, tells MiC.

‘Our media strategy is to [first] support creating more awareness of the problem of biodiversity loss, and two, a call to action so that kids can really ‘bring back the wild,” she explains. ‘So when we met with YTV, we looked at all elements that were required to do that and both organizations strongly felt that we needed not only a really strong PSA to appeal to kids and their parents, but also the integration [component] to generate the kind of discussion that is required for kids to better understand what’s happening with wildlife in Canada and elsewhere in the world. The third component was to create a contest, where the host would be part of it, and it would generate more interest for kids to participate.’

The ‘Bring Back The Wild’ campaign will also be promoted through Earth Rangers partnerships with Cineplex, in which animal trading cards will be given out at theatres, and its monthly double-page spread in The Magazine.