Biidaasige Park: Making Waves with Waterfront Toronto

Experiential and Events Media Relations

Toronto’s largest park in a generation was getting even bigger.

Waterfront Toronto selected Strategic Objectives following a competitive RFP process to lead integrated communications for the western expansion of Biidaasige Park. Opening 10 new acres on Ookwemin Minising, Toronto’s newest island, the milestone marked the next chapter in one of North America’s most ambitious waterfront transformations. Our job was to turn that next chapter into a must-see Toronto story – and make 10 new acres impossible to overlook.

The challenge

Giving media a fresh reason to care

Following the high-profile 2025 opening of a significantly larger section of Biidaasige Park, the western expansion needed distinct news value of its own. We needed to move the story beyond infrastructure and acreage, re-engage media across beats, and position the park as a vibrant public destination where water, nature, culture and community come together.

The solution

From shoreline to headlines

We developed an earned-first integrated campaign to build anticipation before launch, command attention on opening day and sustain momentum afterward:

Built a storytelling framework around four pillars – Nature, Community, Culture and Global Reputation – while navigating input and approvals from partners across all three levels of government to develop clear, aligned messaging and media materials that gave journalists multiple ways into the story.

Sequenced media outreach across exclusive hard-hat previews, launch-day newsroom engagement, spokesperson interviews, guided access and post-launch feature development.

Helped transform the launch-day press conference into a highly visual, water-inspired media event, featuring symbolic arrivals by water, a celebratory brass band and drumline procession, Spring Creek Dancers and Aazhibik Singers, custom peacock fan dancers and stilt walkers, and a Toronto Fire Rescue water-cannon finale.

Brought content creators behind the scenes, inviting select Toronto influencers to an exclusive hard-hat tour that generated authentic content, strong message pull-through and repeat organic visits.

Following a high-profile opening just one year earlier, the western expansion gave Toronto a fresh reason to talk about Biidaasige Park – capturing significant attention and sustaining momentum well beyond launch day.

The results

Ten new acres made a BIG impression

175M+ total impressions
477 total pieces of coverage
163 minutes of broadcast coverage
100% branded coverage
97% of earned coverage included priority storytelling
21.1M+ social media impressions

Results

Does your brand need help cutting through the clutter? Are you looking for fresh thinking and modern storytelling that gets results?

Please contact us to collaborate on award-winning campaigns. We can’t wait to get started!