SickKids and social media
This week we’re going to take a look at an award-winning social media-centric campaign that began its run in 2016 and continues today, and that’s the SickKids VS campaign. SickKids hospital not only provides care for children who are sick, but also provides them and their parents with hope and guidance during difficult time in their lives. One of the things SickKids does brilliantly, is their use of social media, and in particular, influencers.
The VS campaign was taken to the community level by creating different versions of the campaign for each specific neighbourhood. They could geo-target on social media (mainly Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat) and used tailored videos in specific areas. For example, people in the Scarborough area would see an ad with a SickKids kid from Scarborough as opposed to one from North York. It was an excellent use of social media that made it more much more personal and emotional by saying to people “this is someone who lives near you,” or “this could be your neighbor.”
Sick Kids also opted to use local influencers and prominent figures in the Toronto community, such as Mayor John Tory, Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Kyle Dubas, morning television host Marilyn Denis, and radio personalities such as Adam Wylde from Virgin Radio to name a few. They would usually share posts on their social media channels or on their shows and promote and participate in SickKids initiatives and fundraising events.
One fantastic example of how this was used would be that of podcaster and YouTuber, Steve Dangle. One way he contributed was to take time during his podcast to talk about SickKids with his co-hosts and how it was such a tremendous help for his family when he was younger and why it meant a lot to him. Steve also participated in a SickKids ad and gave a behind the scenes look at the filming process. He specifically left links to donate in the video/audio descriptions and on his social media posts on Twitter and Instagram. He would also tag SickKids official social channels in these posts as well or use SickKids branded hashtags.
Steve talking about how and why SickKids was so important to him and why people should support and donate to the cause made it seem more personal for the audience. They had someone who could draw on past experiences with SickKids and why it was such a massive help to them and their family. It told them an emotional story about why donations would be needed and what sort of things the money would be going to. It gave the audience someone to relate to and was an excellent use of an online influencer in a campaign.
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