2024 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

December is the single biggest month of fundraising for SickKids Foundation. It is also the most cluttered time of year – especially for charities. Plus, as so many of the brand’s donors were feeling the pressure of economic uncertainty, pandemic hangover, and bleak global news, the brand wasn’t sure how they were going to break through – even with the brand’s long-standing friend Ryan Reynolds in their corner. Ryan had done 4 holiday campaigns before, but YOY fundraising was in decline.

SickKids knew they needed a new and disruptive strategy this year to break through the holiday noise in the charitable sector and motivate people to give – with a goal of raising $300,000 during the first few weeks of December 2023.

Ryan always brings humour, but the brand needed to leverage a more universal insight and get cheekier than they ever had before. The brand started with an insight that any parent could relate to -- when your child is sick, they aren’t themselves. You would do anything to get them back to health – even though that means they drive you a little crazy.

That insight turned into the name of the brand’s concept – one that never appeared in writing anywhere “From sick kids to PrickKids” – because everyone knows that kids can sometimes be....well, pricks.

To bring this relatable insight to life in a playful way that is so different from typical in-hospital content, Ryan, his iconic sense of humour, and his famous Canadian friends were strategically set within the backdrop of SickKids Hospital with real patients & doctors. The brand shone a light on how at SickKids, bad behaviour must mean one thing – that child is starting to feel better.

Knowing that these Canadian icons would be a draw for audiences, modest spend was planned for paid tactics, with celebrity power acting as their key media driver. With that in mind, the campaign strategically premiered on Ryan’s organic social channels, then on Instagram via a collab with SickKids and other celebs.

In addition to the organic layer, the brand integrated paid Meta/Snapchat ads, influencer content, SickKids-owned sites, and activations at events like a Leafs home game, where some SickKids patients were able to get a break from their day-to-day to watch a game in Auston Matthews’ private box.

Samsung Canada also joined the brand for the 5th year as title sponsor, matching all donations up to $100,000 and amplifying the campaign across their national network and social media channels.

Within 24 hours of posting the film on social media it generated over 7.9M video views and has since reached over 11.1M views on Instagram alone. Plus, an additional 500K views across SickKids other organic channels and Ryan’s YouTube channel.

The responses from people online reinforced Ryan’s & SickKids belief in the power of laughter, as more and more people engaged with the content often stating how “funny” and “motivating” it was. One commenter wrote: “As a mom of two sick kids – one who came home and one who didn’t – this is the first time I’ve ever laughed at a SickKids holiday promo. Usually, they break my heart. Thanks for this @sickkidstoronto.”

The campaign also generated over 272 pieces of media coverage from a range of outlets including Ad Age, Yahoo news (international), US Weekly Magazine, Marie Claire, and NHL.com, resulting in 146M impressions. Earned influencer performance was truly great, including coverage from icons like Anne Murray and other famous friendlies.

Beyond raising awareness for SickKids, the campaign proved effective at generating much-needed donations for the hospital – far surpassing the brand’s $300K goal - raising an impressive $617,000 in only 4 weeks, from countries around the world including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France – to name a few!

At a time when philanthropic giving is generally trending down, and with economic uncertainty affecting donor behaviour, these results were the best gift the brand could hope for.

Credits

Ideation and Creation - Maximum Effort
Director - Bryan Rowland
Production - Really Original/Vancouver Film School
Cue Card Artist - Wally Feresten
Vice President, Head of Brand, Content and Communications - Kate Torrance
Director, Brand Marketing Management - Roy Gruia
Director, Public Relations and Communications - Sandra Chiovitti
Associate Director, Brand Marketing - Tina Tieu-LaFrance
Associate Director, Public Relations - Tania Kwong
Manager, Integrated Brand Marketing - Meighen Power
Manager, Public Relations and Stakeholder Management - Taylor Huff
Associate, Community Stakeholder Relations - Kylie White
External Consultant - Lisa Charendoff