A visually captivating film and a new way to look at children’s cancer comes from FCB Canada for SickKids Foundation. The highly emotive film, The Count, artfully weaves birthday imagery with athletic metaphors and surrealistic imagery alongside real life moments of children and their families, depicting the fight for every birthday for patients, families and hospital staff.
The campaign is at once a doubling down on the longtime SickKids VS platform while marking a tonal evolution for the platform as The Hospital for Sick Children’s (SickKids) enters a new era that coincides with its 150th birthday on April 3.
“When talking about what SickKids is fighting for, especially in context of their 150th birthday, we thought there was a real clarity and tangibility to the idea that what SickKids and every patient is really fighting for is quite literally their next birthday,” stated Jacob Pacey, associate creative director and copywriter at FCB Toronto.
“Once you start thinking about it through that lens, it opens up a new way to think about their fight,” added Brendan McMullen, associate creative director and art director at FCB Toronto.
“Our 150th birthday presented a unique strategic and creative challenge for the brand. We wanted to celebrate SickKids incredible history but also needed a compelling motivator to get people to donate today,” stated Roy Gruia, director, brand marketing at SickKids Foundation. “From the first meeting with FCB they reminded us and held us to task that this work had to lean into the VS fight, and that in order to motivate donations we had to focus on our current fight—a fight for more birthdays for our patients. They helped us to see we shouldn’t water down our own message by trying to do too many things. So, this work does not focus on accomplishments of the last 150 years but rather reflects the hospital’s core mission of the past, present and future, while our birthday acts as inspiration for the concept.”
“From the beginning we knew we wanted to put the fight back into VS but do it in a way that felt different from where it’s been. A new agency can often mean a new platform, but walking away from the equity of VS felt self-serving since we know that investing in a longer-term platform makes it more effective. We believe that equity will make the difference in getting more kids to more birthdays,” added Nancy Crimi-Lamanna, chief creative officer at FCB Canada.
FCB Canada drew on relationships across its global agency network to sign on top production partners to the project, most notably award-winning director, Clément Durou from We Are From LA; UK-based editor, Neil Smith; and new full-service creative content studio, ARC, launched with former staff from The Mill. Music house, Soundtree, was also an early collaborator, bringing together teams from LA, New York, and London to compose the film’s powerful original score featuring audio recordings of SickKids patients themselves. All partners generously donated significant amounts of time to the film, especially production partner, MERCHANT, who co-produced the film with US production company, Iconoclast.
The film is supported by a full campaign across TV, OOH, social and digital platforms featuring photography from Matt Barnes and Westside Studio.
FCB Canada was responsible for all strategy and creative, Cairns Oneil handled all media planning and buying, with Citizen Relations leading PR for the 150thBirthday campaign.
