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 challenge 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 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

Mike Lo Nam, ACD, Citizen Relations
Abeer Verma, ACD, Citizen Relations
Josie Haynes, VP, Citizen Relations
Rebecca Myers, Account Director, Citizen Relations
Adam O'Neill, Account Director, Citizen Relations
Cian Murray, Sr. Account Manager, Citizen Relations
Justine Little-Trent, Account Manager, Citizen Relations
May Zeibak, Strategist, Citizen Relations
Nico Williams, Artist
Agency Partner: Cossette