We’ll use this space to highlight some of the things you need to know about your Our Kids membership, such as new profile updates. We’ll also use it to highlight items of more general interest, including what we and our members are involved in, projects we’re working on, developments in the marketplace, and ideas we think you’ll be interested in.
November 2025 - Five things to focus on for 2026
In 2026, families are dealing with a higher cost of living than ever before. More kids than ever have anxiety and other mental health concerns. Meanwhile, you face increased operating expenses, along with staffing challenges. How do you deal with those changes? Focus on these five things.
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October 2025 - How Our Kids landing pages help parents—and you
Discoverability and ease of use are at the heart of a modern camp-search experience. As a platform trusted by millions of families each year, we help parents quickly understand their options, align with their values, and take action with confidence.
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September 2025 - Five ways OUR KIDS profiles work for you
Parents heading into 2025–26 want what you offer: Meaningful experiences for their kids. But rising costs and uncertainty make every choice feel heavier. Time is scarce. Money is tight. Trust is fragile. We can help you to help them.
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August 2025 - Five tips to help collect high-impact camper and parent reviews now.
Long-form reviews showcase your camp’s value to prospective families because they include more specifics, are often more heartfelt, and give people full context.
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July 2025 - Five reasons successful camps & programs focus on user-generated content.
When parents search for a camp, they aren’t just looking for a program — they want peace of mind. They want to hear from families like them, not just marketers. That’s why user-generated content (UGC) is one of the most powerful tools at a camp’s disposal.
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June 2025 - Four Ways to Improve Parent Communication this Summer.
Your communication with parents should always be evolving. Here are four tips to help improve ways you get and keep their attention in 2025.
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May 2025 - How to fill the remaining spaces in your programs? Solutions here.
We asked marketing pros for tips on the quickest win for camp marketers intent on filling their programs. Here are some tips from Mike Chan of Pedalheads and Travis Allison of GoCampPro.
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April 2025 - Use Our Kids’ Platform To Highlight Or Reinforce The Safety Of Your Camp
Safety used to be a checkbox. Now, it’s a necessity. Parents want to know: "Will my child be safe?"" How demonstrate that you show that effectively, yet subtly? Here are seven tips.
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March 2025 - Understanding No-Click Marketing And How It Impacts Your Influence
Clicks have been the cornerstone metric of digital marketing for years, but their importance is now being reevaluated in the evolving landscape of online interaction. The rise of AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Google's AI Overviews in search results marks another shift from traditional click-centric models. But if people aren't clicking, they may actually be more stongly influenced some places online, in fact.
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February 2025 - The Importance Of Promoting Your Best People To Parents
Jeff Bradshaw of Camp Wenonah shares his thoughts on the importance of promoting your staffers in marketing and communications to help alleviate parents’ concerns about safety.
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January 2025 - When Friction Costs You Campers
Parents are drowning in a sea of choices. Choosing a camp program is a significant undertaking. They're not just buying a program session; they're buying peace of mind, growth, and possibility. They want a fit for their child, and ultimately a transformative experience. It's our job to help them find that faster.
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December 2024 - Four Insights From Our Webinar On Stories Untold By Your Metrics
We were honoured to host a webinar on “Stories Untold by Your Metrics” with Alina Morkin from STEM Camp and Agnes Stawicki from OUR KIDS Guide to Camps & Programs. We discussed how improperly interpreting data can lead to inefficient decisions. Here are the main takeaways from the event.
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November 2024 - Six Takeaways From Our Kids’ Marketing Academy Lunch & Learn
The Our Kids’ Marketing Academy Lunch & Learn is back! November 15, over 40 camp marketers joined us in intentional learning and discussing the challenges and opportunities we all face. Read three key takeaways from our morning seminar on removing roadblocks parents face, and three actionable lessons to elevate your marketing strategy.
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October 2024
This past week, Our Kids’ marketing manager James Shi led a webinar on “The State of Camp Marketing in 2024.” Drawing from our data on over one million annual website visitors, the webinar focused on current trends we see. Here are five key takeaways, in case you missed it.
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September 2024
Inspired by ongoing conversations with leading camp marketing professionals, we share ideas and strategies that drive successful branding and engagement with families. This month, Mike Chan of Pedalheads shares his thoughts on trends he’s seen in the last few years and how their marketing team is responding.
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August 2024
Think about the most powerful camp or program reviews you've ever read. The ones that stirred a strong emotion within you. The ones that inspired you to take action and enrol your child.
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July 2024
Kids want more from you than just something to do. They want an experience that's memorable, worthwhile, even weird. Ideally, WOW!
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June 2024
Inspired by ongoing conversations with leading camp marketing professionals, we’ll share ideas and strategies that drive successful branding and engagement with families. This month, Travis Allison of Go Camp Pro shares tips on how to effectively vary communications with parents so they’ll get the messages you’re sending.
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May 2024
Bunk beds and basketballs, laptops and art supplies—these are simply souvenirs, artifacts of a typical camp or program experience. But what are you really selling? ...
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April 2024
Testimonials in your marketing show how happy families have been with you, giving people glowing accounts of your programming. Reviews are more objective, often hosted on a third-party platform, and more impactful on the reader. ...
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May 2023
As we approach another busy summer, we want to make sure your Our Kids profile is up to date to maximize your lead generation. ...
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November 2022
When families look into potential camps and programs, they crave perspectives from multiple stakeholders ...
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October 2022
With more than 25 years of experience working with 2.6 million families annually, we have a deep understanding of how families search for camps and programs ...
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August 2022
I’d like to “introduce” you to Camps.ca—and myself. I’m the architect (for better or worse) of much of Our Kids Media’s camp content ...
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February 2022
The 2022 Camp and Program Guide is delivering now. It’s a big year for the guide–this is our 25th edition” ...
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January 2022
The idea for Our Kids grew out of a simple, unremarkable moment: one night at the dinner table Agnes Stawicki asked, “Why do we always go to the same camp?” ...
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December 2021
“People see outdoor education as lying within the tourism industry or the adventure industry,” says Dr. Robert Wallis. “But we’ve always been focused on that education piece ...
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November 2021
In celebration of our 25th anniversary, Our Kids is launching a Looking Back feature to run in our print guide and online ...
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October 2021 (Overnight)
We’ve launched a new photo essay to communicate some of the value associated with the overnight camp experience. Activities are important, though, as we profiled in our last print guide...
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August 2021
It’s been a year! Not back to normal, not by a long shot, but camps rose to the challenge of the grey area, the one between fully closed and fully opened. What hasn’t wavered is a dedication to getting people together...
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July 2021
“Overall, it’s been 35 summers or more at Camp Nominingue,” says director Grant McKenna. “So it’s a place I know pretty well.” McKenna said that during the camp director video...
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June 2021
Our Kids was founded by award-winning photojournalist Andrew Stawicki. As a long-time photographer with the Toronto Star, he’s taken some images that have literally entered the national consciousness...
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May 2021
Over the past two years we’ve been working to strengthen our position as a home base for families. To not only be a source of qualified information, but also to be a tool that families can use to plan their year...
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February 2021
We’re happy to say that the magazine is back from the printers and we’ll begin distributing next week. Here’s a first look at the cover of the 24th annual Our Kids Camp and Program Guide...
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January 2021
I’ve been prepping the content for the annual Camp and Program Guide, and while we say this every year, it’s true every year: this is our best issue yet...
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December 2020
Last year was a rout for the camping industry, to put it mildly. But what about 2021? While it’s early days yet, if our web traffic is any indication, it promises to be brisk...
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November 2020
It’s easy for families to think of camp as a place to have fun, which of course it is, though too often they don’t see beyond that. This is particularly true of parents/families who are new to the camp concept or haven’t experienced it first hand....
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October 2020
To understate it entirely, it was a challenging year for the camp industry. Certainly, no one is going to forget 2020 anytime soon. When the country locked down, we went into immediate action...
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September 2020
We make too much of the “keep calm and carry on” adage. There are times when it’s important not just to endure, but to raise voices, demand change, and advocate for others. This is one of those times...
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August 2020
It’s as true as it is worth repeating: kids need camp. As the editor of the annual guide, that’s a message that I work to include in each edition: camp is fun, but it’s more than that. It’s fun that you can take seriously....
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July 2020
It’s true that online programming provides families with diversions, fun things to do, new things to learn. What’s perhaps not as obvious is that it offers much more than that...
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June 2020
While it’s easy to recognise character—we know it when we see it—it’s famously more difficult to define. Harder still is to describe how character arises. In his recent book, The Second Mountain, David Brooks struggles with the concept...
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May 2020
The first line of this letter has been written dozens of times,” writes Jeff Bradshaw at the top of the Camp Wenonah facebook post this week announcing the closure...
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April 2020
During an online campfire from Camp Wenonah last week, Jason Monteith said that “one of the things I love about camp—and I bet you’ve found the last couple weeks that one way that this has been a lot like camp...
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March 2020
Many camps are offering programming online, and for perhaps a majority, it’s a first foray into making real use of remote platforms. The value is clear: kids need things to do, and parents welcome productive, engaging activities...
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February 2020
The 23rd annual edition of the Our Kids Camp and Program guide is currently being distributed. It’s our biggest edition ever, including profiles of more than 360 camps and programs, delivering, by far, the most complete resource of its kind in Canada...
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January 2020
There’s a different look to our report this month, which marks a slight shift in focus. We’ll still use this space to highlight some of the things you need to know, such as the note below about the profiles going live to the site...
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