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As part of the largest donation drive in its history, Sunnybrook Hospital’s fundraising arm, Sunnybrook Foundation, has launched a campaign targeting the Greater Toronto Area to brand the hospital as a place of innovation and hope.
The campaign is the first from Toronto agency Dentsu, which was named the foundation’s first agency of record in July.
It uses real patient stories to illustrate the tag line “Innovation when it matter most,” an evolution of the “When it matters most” position created by brand consultancy Level5.
One television ad follows a car crash victim from the scene of her accident to the hospital emergency ward to her rehabilitation sessions where she learns to walk with her artificial leg.
“The goal is two-fold: to raise brand awareness of Sunnybrook, and also to build a better understanding of what Sunnybrook is about,” said Pamela Ross, vice-president and chief marketing officer at Sunnybrook Foundation.
Sunnybrook is largely known as a trauma hospital, but Ross wants people to know about its expertise in areas such as high-risk pregnancies, heart surgeries and cancer care.
“We need to build an understanding with our community to show what we’re really about,” she said.
Glen Hunt, creative catalyst at Dentsu, said agency staff spent a full day at the hospital doing rounds with doctors and meeting researchers to get a fuller sense of Sunnybrook’s work.
“I’ve driven past the [hospital] a million times and I try not to look because I think hospitals are places where bad things are happening to good people,” said Hunt.
Hunt said his visit did show him those kinds of situations–“We started the day at 7 a.m. in the premie care unit with babies born three months too soon that have hoses in their noses, who can’t be touched,” he said–but also revealed how much research goes on behind the scenes.
“They innovated a plastic bag that they put [premature] babies in so they retain body heat and better survive in the short term…Now, instead of seeing the hospital as a place where bad things are happening, I look at it and think amazing things are happening there.”
Hunt said the campaign is designed as a long-term proposition, with another burst likely to come in 2010.
While there is no call for donations in any of Sunnybrook’s new work, Ross wants the mass campaign to drive Sunnybrook’s community awareness ahead of a renewed direct marketing fundraising campaign.
Ads and public service executions are appearing across television, radio, print, online and outdoor media in the Greater Toronto Area, home to 70% of the hospital’s donors.
Paid television ads appear mostly on Canwest’s properties, though PSAs have been made available to all television media providers. The campaign’s main print venue is The Globe and Mail. Dentsu handled media duties.
Sunnybrook has set a fundraising goal of $470 million to fund new facilities, technology and research. Since announcing that goal, it has raised $265 million.
