Indigo’s Love of Reading Foundation has teamed up with Corus Entertainment’s Kids Can Press to put Scaredy Squirrel, star of the eponymous series of books, front-and-centre for its new promotional campaign.

With a goal to raise awareness and funds, the campaign kicked off last week with PSAs on Corus’s kids net YTV and online banners on TreehouseTV.com. The creative, media planning and buys were handled in-house by teams at Indigo, Kids Can Press and Corus Entertainment.

‘The media strategy leverages public relations, broadcast and online advertising in Indigo’s ongoing effort to raise awareness of Canada’s literacy crisis,’ Jennifer Gay, director, Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, tells MiC.

The media push introduces the partnership to audiences and sets the stage for the November debut of the Scaredy Squirrel box set, which will be available in Indigo, Chapters and Coles stores. The set includes a plush squirrel and book, and comes in a box that can be turned into a puppet theatre. Proceeds from the box set will go toward the Love of Reading Foundation.

The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation commits $1.5 million annually to high-needs elementary schools to rebuild their libraries with books and resources.

With files from Kidscreen Daily