2022 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

In 2015, SickKids set the largest fundraising goal in Canadian healthcare history—$1.5 billion—money it needed to build a new hospital. Since then, the VS platform has been transformational for SickKids, making it the most top-of-mind charity in Toronto. However, its strength is also its weakness as would-be donors think that the job of fundraising is done. The agency’s objective was to help the hospital make history by securing the final 5,000 donors it needed to cross the one million monthly donor milestone.

Sick isn’t weak. It fights back. That’s why patients at SickKids earn Bravery Beads with every procedure they endure. Over the years, more than a million beads have been handed out, yet few outside the hospital have ever seen one. So they set out to challenge the status quo by creating the world’s first public symbol to honour the strength of sick children. Their strategy was simple: use personal acts of bravery to inspire public acts of generosity. Bravery Beads are colourful and curious, so they unveiled five larger-than-life replicas in high-traffic areas across the city, such as the Eaton Centre and Union Station. Each set the stage for sharing patient stories, arming media with exclusives and deploying influencers to sustain the conversation.

Over the span of three months, Canadians answered their two-fold call to action: the first was aimed at the public, urging them to become monthly donors; and the second was aimed at patients (past and present), asking them to donate their precious beads for the making of a monument honouring their fight. They then commissioned Canadian artist Nico Williams, a beadwork specialist, to design and build SickKids Monument to the Brave using the very beads they collected from patients. The Monument will live at the new SickKids as an everlasting symbol of patient strength once the new hospital is complete.

Monument to the Brave helped SickKids reach its goal of 5,000 new donors, crossing the one million donor milestone just halfway through the campaign. It acquired 154 donors on the first day alone, the highest among all previous fall campaigns. There was a +15% YOY increase in monthly donors, equalling over $8.6 million in lifetime value, as well as a +20% YOY increase in one-time donations. The campaign earned 26 million impressions through hits on major outlets such as CBC, Toronto Star, Breakfast Television and CTV News and 10.5 million social media impressions for a total of 36.5 million impressions across the entire earned campaign. Real patients donated over 3,000 Bravery Beads to be part of the Monument to the Brave. All are now permanently enshrined in a symbol that redefines how we see
and honour strength.

Credits

Client: SickKids Foundation
Program: SickKids VS: Monument to the Brave
Program Date: Completed April 2021
Agency: Citizen Relations
CREDITS
ACD: Mike Lo Nam
ACD: Abeer Verma
Art Director: Mike Lo Nam
Writer: Abeer Verma
VP: Josie Haynes
Account Director: Rebecca Myers
Account Director: Adam O’Neill
XM Managing Director: Kevin Wagman
Senior Account Manager: Cian Murray
Account Manager: Justine Little-Trent
Strategist: May Zeibak
Artist: Nico Williams
Agency Partner: Cossette, OMD