Recently, Shell celebrated a milestone achieved by the over 10,000 men and women working in the Athabasca Oil Sands on the Scotford Upgrader Expansion 1 project – 20 million hours worked without a serious injury or lost-time incident. Considering the number of workers involved and the many potential hazards they face every day, this is quite the accomplishment. To express the pride they have in all those involved, they launched a campaign to recognize the 20 million hours achievement.

Strut developed the campaign that consisted of full-page newspaper and radio ads – running in Northern Alberta as well as in the Maritimes, where many of the workers call home – as well as posters and pull-up displays for internal communications.

Photos of actual workers from the project were the key focus of the print materials and the newspaper ads running in each region featured people from that region. The radio – recorded at Ear Candy – presents the achievement in a heroic manner and expresses Shell's pride in and thanks to the workers. Most safety recognition messaging in the industry is usually rather low-key, but Shell really wanted the workers to receive recognition, not just internally, but within the entire oil sands community and the communities in which they and their families live.

As the guiding Shell Oil Sands line states, "Everyone home safely, always." Something these workers truly take to heart.