SickKids is revisiting its wildly successful 2014 “Better Tomorrows” campaign with a new effort that continues the stories of six patients.
Better Tomorrows, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in SickKids history, was developed by the hospital’s former AOR JWT and featured 45 TV spots, each highlighting a different SickKids patient and their families. The effort earned a slew of awards including a Silver Lion at Cannes and a silver and bronze at the 2015 Marketing Awards. It also garnered more than 88 million social impressions, and in December 2014, the hospital received $37 million in donations, the highest amount ever collected in a single month in SickKids history.
This year’s campaign, from creative agency Cossette, taps into the innate desire to want to know how a story ends, and features updates on six SickKids families introduced during last year’s campaign.
This month the hospital will begin posting photos of the six kids on Facebook, and will invite users to help “unpause” their stories. Those who click on the child’s picture are directed to a donation page, where people can find out how the kid is doing by making a donation online.
Each donation goal is tied to the patient’s individual story. For example, Kael, a boy born with a rare immune disorder spent 440 days at the hospital. Once 440 people have donated (regardless of dollar amount), his follow-up video will be unlocked and released more broadly online.
“People really engaged with these videos, people really loved them, and our thinking behind this was that people want to see more, so let’s see how much they want to see more,” said Peter Ignazi, chief creative officer at Cossette. “We went out and we shot the follow-up stories to these kids [and] a lot of them are doing quite well, and they’re at home as opposed to being in the hospital…it’s really engaging content and really sort of uplifting.”
A one-minute teaser video launched across social media Monday, and four of last year’s ads along with a new two-minute spot are airing on TV. Slated to run until the end of December during heavily-viewed programs like the 49th Country Music Awards and It’s a Wonderful Life, the new ad features a montage of activity at SickKids, and ends with the line, “Just another day at The Hospital for Sick Children.”
According to Lori Davison, vice-president, brand strategy and communications, SickKids Foundation, deciding to continue the campaign was an “easy decision” based on the breadth of work created last year. However, what’s different about this year’s effort is the heavy emphasis on Facebook. The Better Tomorrows campaign, both this year and last, has mainly targeted moms, “a community that is very active,” on the social networking site, Davidson said. The hospital is hoping that tapping into that behaviour will result in increased awareness and donations.
In addition, the hospital is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year, and has partnered with CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries for a full SickKids script integration on an upcoming holiday special.
Additional elements of the campaign include print, and ads on Twitter and Facebook. Media planning and buying was handed by Cairns O’Neil, which helped execute the 2015 marketing campaign. As its new media AOR, OMD has started planning for 2016.
