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Challenge
Heart & Stroke sits on a wealth of data, research, and lived experience, but data alone doesn't change behaviour. Heart disease and stroke remain leading causes of premature death in Canada, and for many groups, including the 89% of women unaware of the risk factors unique to them, the gap isn't a lack of information, it's a lack of connection to it.
Since 2021, Heart & Stroke has relied on Talk Shop to close that gap: to secure earned media exposure, support philanthropy efforts, and raise awareness of key issues, all built around the organization's biggest moments of the year, Heart Month, Stroke Month, and its Year End campaign.
The challenge each year is the same one, at a bigger scale: take clinical findings and public health statistics and turn them into stories that a national news audience will actually stop for, stories specific enough to reach the Canadians most at risk, while still building a media relationship and reach that grows year over year.
Our Approach
Talk Shop's approach is rooted in a collaborative, insight-driven process that transforms data into compelling, media-ready stories. We start with strategic campaign briefings to uncover what's new, newsworthy, and most relevant to Canadians, identifying strong narrative angles and ways to segment national data for regional and local relevance. Through spokesperson engagement, we surface impactful stories from experts and people with lived experience, enabling pitching that lands differently in Halifax than it does in Montreal. Outreach stays dynamic throughout each campaign, tapping into the daily news cycle and refining targets and angles in real time to deepen media relationships and maximize coverage.
That process extends into new formats where it makes sense. When Heart & Stroke launched a first-of-its-kind heart and brain health risk screening tool aimed at women in perimenopause and menopause, a life stage where risk often intensifies but awareness stays low, Talk Shop built a targeted nano-influencer program around it, selecting creators who reflected Heart & Stroke's priority audiences and inviting them to try the tool and share their own results. The campaign paired that authentic, niche reach with broader earned coverage, generating over 68,000 views and a 3.31% engagement rate, while several creators contributed additional content unprompted, a sign the message had genuinely landed. For the 2026 Heart Month campaign, Talk Shop built a national media strategy around a single impactful case study and expert commentary to bring the campaign's core report to life, while also managing the full French-language media push for Quebec and francophone Canada.
Results
Heart & Stroke and Talk Shop secured the CPRS ACE Award for Best Use of Media Relations and Health Care Campaign of the Year.
In 2025, Talk Shop organized 89 interviews, securing 670+ pieces of positive media coverage and 80M+ impressions.
In 2026 Heart Month alone, Talk Shop secured 429 media hits, organized 54 interviews, and reached 95.3M Canadians, including 49 French-language stories, 45 of them in Quebec.
Heart Month audience reach has grown 164% in five years, from 36.1M in 2022 to 95.3M in 2026.
Coverage regularly spans Global News, CTV News, CBC News, National Post, CP24, CityNews, La Presse Canadienne, Yahoo!, and more.
A targeted nano-influencer campaign around Heart & Stroke's new risk screening tool drove 68,000+ views and 2,251 engagements, at a negotiated $3,220 in cost savings.
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