SickKids Foundation executed an integrated campaign that moved beyond traditional marketing and fundraising. Audience engagement platforms led to greater awareness of children’s health, a boost in fundraising dollars, and overall - outstanding results.

1. Do the Happy: A SickKids Case Study

2. Background/Summary
•
•
•
•
The Do the Happy Campaign was a new initiative for SickKids Foundation - the nonprofit marketplace has experienced an aggressive battle for attention: causes don‟t
just put out campaigns anymore, they now own calendar months. SickKids wanted to
own one too: for children‟s health.
With a number of existing May events and fundraisers dedicated to SickKids, a need
to boost fundraising in the spring, and no significant competition in the month, May
was chosen as “the month to own children‟s health”.
Research shows that SickKids is well known, but not known well for its role in
research, prevention and education of children‟s diseases. There was an identified
need to raise awareness of children‟s health issues, and to shed new light on
SickKids‟ role beyond treating sick children.
So, the best approach for a campaign in today‟s competitive non-profit landscape?
Get beyond traditional marketing and fundraising and create a platform for audience
engagement.

3. Objective and Goals
Objective:
• SickKids‟ objective was to create and implement a fully integrated and
scalable fundraising, education and awareness campaign in the month of
May that galvanizes and rallies the GTA communities in support of
children‟s health.
Goals:
• Fundraising: To see a 5% increase in fundraising activity.
• Awareness: To “own” the month of May in the GTA.
• Education: To educate and inform the community at large through a
variety of platforms designed to position SickKids role in the arena of
children‟s health.

4. Campaign Overview
•
•
•
•
•
The big idea was to get all of Toronto to “do the happy” for SickKids, and “own the happy
face”. Building on SickKids‟ established reputation, the strategy was to be the bright spark
in a sea of dark non-profit campaigns and create a positive campaign that would rally
public, sponsor, cause marketing participation and support for SickKids – and bring
children‟s health to the forefront.
We created an activation that would allow anyone – public to corporation – to participate.
With a limited media budget, we needed impact, and to tap into some-thing that would
resonate, something shareable, and something that SickKids delivers that was “happy”.
The Healthy & Happy campaign platform reinforces the vision of the Hospital: Healthier
Children. A Better World. The activation, “Do The Happy for SickKids”, was created to give
the entire GTA, staff, sponsors, donors, patients and families a fun, emotional means to
participate in this new children‟s health movement.
Traffic was directed to the dothehappy.com micro-site, where people could upload
their “happy” moments, follow, share, donate or set up a fundraising page.
As they had limited time to execute, SickKids launched a two-week teaser campaign
asking Torontonians, “What will your happy be?” to build traction for the “Do the
Happy” reveal May 1st, until its end on May 31st. This helped them successfully own
the month.

5. Campaign Overview (Continued)
•
Participant badges, “I‟m Doing The
Happy” and “We‟re Doing The
Happy” were created to identify
support for the campaign – public or
partner.
•
Traffic was directed to the
dothehappy.com micro-site, where
people could upload their “happy”
moments, follow, share, donate or
set up a fundraising page.

6. Creative and Execution of the Integrated
Campaign
•
•
•
•
•
Wanting the happy face to become synonymous with the Hospital and the campaign, the new
Happy Hero icon lead the identity. 45 “Happeople” icons followed to create inclusiveness and
have people see themselves in the campaign.
SickKids promoted ways to Do The Happy via: FUNraise, Register a Happy Place and Upload
your Happy to the micro-site.
The highly visible white backgrounds, big type, simple on-brand two-colour design and
illustrated Happeople attracted audiences. They were curious about and followed the poster
series in wild postings and subway platform posters. There was a total of 26 different posters
created. The animated Happeople attracted eyes and smiles on outdoor digital screens and
online.
The micro-site‟s home page featured uploads of participants‟ “happy”, which encouraged
visitor frequency.
Media was maximized. The largest human happy face was formed at Nathan Phillips square.
Subway doors became faces with a smile decal under windows and stair risers were used to
communicate fundraising goals. Subway turnstiles were made „happy‟. The cover of Metro
was unavoidable May 1st with a giant happy face gazing at you. SickKids used subway card
ads to encourage people to start a human wave. Strangers received Happy Mail on the street.
Animated Happeople digital ads added smiles to users‟ screens.

7. Campaign Results – Fundraising and
Awareness
Fundraising:
• 5.6% increase in revenue in May [an increase in revenue to plan].
• Raised $5.1 million in May.
• Received a $7 million major gift during the campaign.
• Secured 43 new corporate partners and a title sponsor.
• Sixty new events registered to raise funds for SickKids, including Dancers
for Cancer that raised more than $50,000.
• DM acquired almost 600 new monthly donors and raised more than $2
million during the SickKids Radiothon.

8. Campaign Results – Fundraising and
Awareness (Continued)
Awareness:
• We received more than 250 million impressions.
• We also received a 6:1 media ratio on the spend with Toronto Star, achieving close to
50 million impressions (print and online).

9. Results – Social, Media Relations and Education
Digital and Social:
• Micro-site: 55,193 unique page views.
• Online donations:19% lift in online donations over previous May.
• Twitter: 4.8 million people reached.
• Blog: 4,000+ unique visitors.
• Facebook interactions: doubled.
Media Relations:
• 130 stories and more than 15 million impressions.
• More than 40 celebrities did The Happy, captured in video.
Education:
• 400+ people attended two education events.
• 305 tip sheet downloads on healthy weights and head injuries. Toronto Star special
Happy & Healthy section focused on advocacy and education reached 1.2 million.