The ad opens with a familiar hospital scene showing doctors prepping for surgery. But, when the camera pulls back, the surgeons are revealed to be wearing life jackets and it’s apparent they’re on a ship.
“Support our Canadian projects on the world’s largest civilian hospital ships,” a voiceover continues. “Support Mercy Ships.”
That’s just part of the first ever agency-led awareness and fundraising campaign for Mercy Ships Canada, the world’s largest volunteer-run hospital ship, which provides free surgical care to people in impoverished nations. Founded in 1978, Mercy Ships has delivered health care to more than 2.35 million beneficiaries in more than 70 countries.
The pro-bono campaign uses familiar hospital scenes with unexpected nautical cues to show what makes Mercy Ships unique. It includes three 15-second spots, three print ads, digital boards and a photography exhibit by Canadian photographer Matt Barnes, depicting life on the Africa Mercy hospital ship.
Part of the Toronto Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, the photo exhibit features 25 images and is on display at Struck Contemporary Art Gallery from May 26 to June 5.
“The whole campaign has been a real passion project,” says Nuala Byles, executive creative director at brand activation agency Geometry Global Canada in Toronto, which led the campaign along with WPP company partners Ogilvy & Mather Canada, Neo@Ogilvy Canada and OgilvyOne Worldwide Canada. PR firm Neat Marketing Communications created the media plan.
Byles was looking for a creative project to work on when somebody shared one of Mercy Ship’s videos with her. “What I found amazing was the very concept of a floating hospital – a brilliant concept on its own and I’d never heard of it.”
She contacted the Vancouver office of Mercy Ships Canada, discovered it didn’t have an agency and that the global organization had never worked with an agency. Until that point, Mercy Ships’ fundraising work was like other charities that show the problem, but don’t inspire people to make a difference, Byles says. “I wanted to see what we could do.”
Soon after, Byles presented her ideas to the global team. By January, she was off to Madagascar with Barnes to shoot onboard the Africa Mercy. All the print and video was shot with real patients and volunteer doctors and nurses using available lighting.
The campaign is aimed primarily at millennials, based on research that found they want to get involved, are engaged socially and that 57% want to see the direct impact of their donations.
Barnes’ photographs, which are also being used in the advertising campaign, will be sold at the Struck Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto and limited edition prints will be sold through an eBay auction, with all proceeds to be donated to Mercy Ships.
Shazam’s visual recognition capability is being used to garner donations at the exhibit. Attendees can scan an image with their mobile device and make an instant donation for a specific treatment or medical supply. For example, if the focal point of the photo is a child with a plaster cast on his leg, the donation can be used for leg surgery.
Content from the gallery exhibit will also be released in a social campaign.
The goals of the campaign are to broaden Mercy Ships’ funding base – to date it has been funded primarily by American and faith-based groups – and to motivate people to volunteer on the ship. It acts as a floating village with 450 volunteers, from teachers and kitchen staff to engineers and doctors.
The campaign is operating through Mercy Ships’ website and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts at #SupportMercyShips.
As well, the 15-second ads are running digitally on several sites including the Unruly network ,Yahoo, Trip Advisor, and on television on CBC and The Weather Network in English and Radio-Canada, Historia and Séries+ in French.
Digital boards will air in malls across the country on the Pattison digital network.
Though the campaign officially launched May 26 to coincide with the with exhibit, it unofficially kicked off late last month on negotiated “remnant space” with different sources including digital. As of May 24, the campaign had 1.86 million digital impressions.
