About Prosserman JCC + Schwartz/Reismann Centre
The Prosserman JCC and Schwartz/Reisman Centre are vibrant community hubs, dedicated to enriching Jewish life in Toronto. With campuses in Toronto and Vaughan, the JCCs engage more than 40,000 visitors yearly in fitness, aquatics, early childhood education, adult and senior programming, arts and cultural events, and the largest Jewish day camp in the country.
Together, the Prosserman JCC and Schwartz/Reisman Centre represents the largest network of day camps and overnight camps in North America, with more than 100,000 young people participating in their programs each summer. During the academic year, more than 35,000 children are enrolled in their early childhood education programs, making them, again, the largest on the continent. They are the Jewish community’s largest employer, with more than 30,000 full and part-time staff year-round and another 14,000 seasonal staff who bring summer programs to life. More than 3,000 board members provide essential guidance, support, and oversight of their work. In every category and by every measure, their size and scope endow and empower them with enormous responsibility to serve as a beacon for community life.
The Challenge
In 2021, the Prosserman JCC and Schwartz/Reisman Centre embarked on a comprehensive strategic planning process. At the time, the two JCC campuses engaged approximately 25,000 people in the Greater Toronto Area annually. Following an extensive community consultation journey, a bold four-year strategic plan was implemented with a goal to engage 75,000 people annually by June 30, 2026. The strategic plan supported the new mission statement for the JCC:
To be a hub of community, dedicated to the enrichment of Jewish life through meaningful shared experiences.
One of the three strategic objectives outlined within the JCC’s strategic plan was the need to Elevate the JCC user experience. A major area of focus would be the reimagination of a marketing and brand strategy for the JCC with the primary goal of solidifying the JCC’s position as the primary entry point, and connector, to Jewish life in the Greater Toronto Area.
Membership Growth
The JCC also sought strategic and tactical direction on delivering the new messaging to the broader community. The Strategic Plan called for tripling the center’s engagement by reaching 75,000 people annually by June 2026.
As the JCC’s newly selected marketing agency, we understood the stakes were high; engaging tens of thousands of community members with meaningful experiences that amplify Jewish identity and secure our collective future was enormous communal responsibility; one that H2O was honored to help undertake.
Brand Identity
Having recently completed their strategic planning for 2025 and beyond, the executive leadership team were excited about sharing a reinvigorated vision for the future of the centers. With new Vision, Mission and Value statements firmly in place, it was time to bring their new positioning to life and start communicating it internally and externally through a fresh, reimagined brand identity. JCC was seeking an agency to help shape its future while staying true to its roots.
The Solution
Elevating JCC’s Digital Marketing Footprint + A Rebrand to Unite The Community
H2O worked with the JCC’s executive leadership team to conduct a series of discovery meetings with key stakeholders and members of the community. A comprehensive digital marketing and brand audit was undertaken to review their current state. Our research uncovered opportunities to enhance their digital marketing efforts and provide a vision for a complete rebrand. First we embarked on a journey to help reshape the brand to align better with the new strategic direction and plans. Our discovery efforts uncovered a few key points related to their incumbent branding:
Brand Confusion: JCC members and the broader community struggled to delineate between legacy branding (The “J”, Bathurst JCC), the UJA and JCC brands, and the two centres/locations.
Brand Affinity: Most respondents, and especially frontline staff, felt that current branding did not represent what the JCC is about. Many communicated that it felt somewhat “generic” “lacking any meaning” and that there was a disconnect between the visual (the J) and the verbal name “JCC”.
Brand Advocacy: While everyone we spoke with felt proud of the JCC’s Mission, Vision, and Values, many questioned whether the brand effectively communicated these values and wondered where the “community” was in the branding. Staff felt especially passionate about the “J” branding literally meaning Jew or Jewish and not being fully representative of the diversity of the JCC.
The outcome of these efforts was the creation of a new visual brand identity. The new brand story was developed around two fundamental principles central to the JCC’s strategic plan and history: The JCCs are Unapologetically Jewish, and the JCCs are Open To Everyone. With a revitalized identity, we turned our attention to promoting the new brand, driving membership growth, increasing program registrations, and raising awareness. Our strategy hinged on an omnichannel digital marketing program, which included leveraging social media advertising, organic social media platforms, Google Search and Display Advertising, Google Ad Grants, and email marketing.
Services Provided
- Strategy
- Branding
- Google Search Ads
- Google Grants
- Facebook Ads
- Instagram Ads
- Email Marketing
The Results: Increased Membership & Community Engagement
The Prosserman JCC and Schwartz/Reisman Centre planned to launch its new brand identity on October 11, 2023. Following the horrific events of October 7, a decision was made to delay the launch to address the immediate needs of the Jewish and Israeli communities in Toronto. It was extremely important to ensure the JCC staff felt heard and excited about the new brand. A special event was held for staff to unveil the new brand, share new staff uniforms and apparel, and demonstrate how the new branding would be introduced to the community. The new brand was introduced in stages later that fall, with extremely positive feedback from Board Members, JCC users, and the community. The JCC had a unified brand identity and consistent brand story at a time when the community was looking to come together like never before.
In 2024, approximately two years into the JCC’s strategic plan, 40,000 people now engage with the Prosserman JCC and Schwartz/Reisman Centre annually.
Each department at the JCC continues to show tremendous growth since the rebrand including:
- 1,100 campers enrolled at Centre Camp
- 1,500 children participating in JCC Sports and team programs
- 17,000 people attending cultural events and festivals
- 400 children enrolled in daycare
Most importantly, 18,000 members representing the widest cross-section of Jewish life and community see the Prosserman JCC and Schwartz/Reisman Centre as their home away from home where everyone is welcome. By elevating the brand experience, the JCC has strengthened its position as the place where the largest cross-section of Jews in the City, come to participate in shared experiences that strengthen the community collective.
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