2022 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

The culture of fitness has taught us we can do anything, but people with Down syndrome are told the exact opposite. Fitness isn’t something we encourage or emphasize for the Down syndrome community, because we underestimate what we think
they can accomplish.

The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS)’s objective was to prove the importance of fitness for people within the Down syndrome community, so it can become widely encouraged by doctors,
parents, and society at large.

Athletes with Down syndrome have shown that fitness has the power to not only strengthen the body, but also the mind. For example, Down syndrome athletes like Ironman Chris Nikic have observed strengthened memory, enhanced learning, boosted social skills, and increased confidence – all of which allow for a more independent lifestyle. This linkage could be very meaningful for the community, because even a slight increase in cognition can lead to an
incredible shift in quality of life.

Fitness holds the power to improve cognition for people with Down syndrome, but it’s never been proven, so they recruited 200 people with Down syndrome to do just that. Introducing Mindsets, an evidence-based, globally unprecedented study to definitively prove the link between fitness and cognition for the Down syndrome community.

They recruited individuals with Down syndrome to participate, with the goal of tracking the impact of physical and cognitive exercises on their abilities over time, on a scale that’s never been done before.
They launched a social video showcasing the barriers people with Down syndrome experience when it comes to fitness and encouraging recruitment for the study. They then reached out to over 50 influencers in the Down syndrome community, including content creators, parents, and other key advocacy groups, asking
them to share their campaign.

For data collection, they partnered with Dr. Dan Gordon, Paralympian and Associate Professor in Cardiorespiratory Exercise Physiology at Anglia Ruskin University, and Dr. Henry Mahncke and his team at BrainHQ. They custom-designed a Mindsets app to track the cognitive data from the participants’ BrainHQ exercises and their exercise data from Fitbit. To precisely measure the impact of exercise on their abilities, researchers recorded standard physical and cognitive assessments at the beginning and the end of the study.

The Mindsets initiative has already achieved global reach. ROI is incalculable, but on a cost per impression basis, 36,000 impressions per $ spent isn’t bad. 200 eligible participants were recruited, successfully achieving their research goal of becoming the first ever statistically significant study on exercise and cognition within the Down syndrome community. Study participants came from 4 continents around the world, with community groups around the world answering the call for global recruitment. With a small media budget of only $5000, they achieved 180M media impressions, as well as 1.6M video views across their social media channels, surpassing their objectives by 3x.

Early data from the pilot phase has outperformed expectations. Looking forward, they’ll share the research in early 2022 at world-renowned conferences and in accredited medical journals to ensure physical activity becomes a prescribed therapy for people
with Down syndrome.

Credits

Client: Canadian Down Syndrome Society
Chair: Ed Casagrande
Interim Executive Director: Laura LaChance
Marketing & Communications Manager: Kristen Halpen
Board Member: Ben Tarr

Partners:
Research Chair, Associate Professor: Dan Gordan
Research Assistant: Vivian Merzbach

Posit science/BrainHQ:
Co-Founder: Jeff Zimman
CEO: Dr. Henry Mahncke
Mouna Attarha

Creative Agency: FCB Canada
Chief Creative Officers: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna, Jeff Hilts
Executive Creative Director: Andrew MacPhee
Associate Creative Director: Michael Morelli
Associate Creative Director: Marty Hoefkes
Copywriter: Jon Dawe
Art Director: Jerry Yang
Chief Strategy Officer: Shelley Brown
Director of Strategy: Eryn LeMesurier
Strategy Coordinator: Audrey Zink
VP, Managing Director: Tim Welsh
Group Account Director: Blake Connolly
Account Supervisor: Ilaria Ragno
Agency Producer: Adriana Laborde
Project Manager: Cori Pettit
Production Artist: Douglas Hayter
Senior Production Artist: Jesse Reid-Smith
Proofreader: Jayne Heaton
Production Artist: Dominic Pimpare

PR: Glossy
Shannon Stephaniuk

Production Company: Fuelcontent
Director: Scott Drucker
Director of Photography: Scott Drucker
Camera Operator: Scott Drucker & Chet Tilokani
Photographer: Chet Tilokani

Editing House: Radar
Editor: Jon Garofalo

Audio House: Grayson Matthews
Audio Producer: Kelly McCluskey
Director: Mark Domitric
Engineer: Brian Bernard
Music Supervisor: Rich Hamilton

App design: Bliss Interactive
Thomas Colliers
Head of Project Management: Joni Allert