With Halloween right around the corner, Canada-based Corus Entertainment’s Kids Can Press has developed a new marketing initiative timed with the just-released Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Halloween book title from author/illustrator Melanie Watt.

Created in partnership with Corus’ television and radio divisions, the multiplatform campaign features a special one-minute animated public service announcement starring the uber-cautious squirrel who provides his top-three safety tips for trick-or-treating based on content from the new book.

Montreal’s Watt worked in collaboration with Nelvana and Corus on the PSA’s animation and a French-language version was also completed for Scholastic, the author’s French publisher in Canada.

Along with Corus TV and Radio, the PSA is being supported through Treehouse TV’s newsletter, at TreehouseParents.com, on the Shaw Pumpkin Patrol homepage, and on YouTube, Vimeo, and ScaredySquirrel.com.

For social media outreach, promotions are happening via Corus Radio’s FreshFM stations across Canada and Scaredy Squirrel Halloween avatars have been shared this month to the property’s 12,000 Facebook fans.

Additional campaign offerings include limited edition Halloween Candy Transportation Kits for booksellers and book bloggers, and special pumpkin carving materials.

To date, the PSA video has reached 10,000 views in three weeks, and the campaign has more than 100,000 combined Twitter followers and Facebook fans.

As one of Kids Can Press’ most popular book series to date, more than one million Scaredy Squirrel print books have been sold and the brand has expanded digitally into eBooks and apps.