This story appears in the February/March 2016 issue of strategy.
Bronze: Best Insight
Situation Analysis:
Over 200,000 Canadians experience homelessness but often go ignored, perceived as having made poor life decisions, are lazy, or abuse drugs or alcohol. However, in reality, these are regular people who’ve fallen on tough times, suffered abuse, are mentally disabled, or have grown up without support or guidance. Raising The Roof – a not-for-profit organization dedicated to long-term solutions for Canada’s homeless – sought to dispel these common misconceptions.
Insight & Strategy:
Typical non-profit campaigns of the past focused too much on being clever, telling people to care, or showing them why they should, leading to cause and appeal fatigue. To help understand the specific problems that people live with, the message needed to be shocking, thought provoking, shareable and real to lead to a positive behaviour change.
Execution:
Launched nationally on Feb. 27, 2015, Raising The Roof asked homeless people to read cruel tweets and comments about them that people were posting online, see their reaction, and give them an opportunity to respond to the posters. The campaign ran across online digital display ads and pre-roll videos, driving people to humansforhumans.ca, which featured 33 “mean tweet” videos. Wild postings also placed the messages contextually on the street.
Results:
The Raising The Roof YouTube channel garnered over 1.5 million views which, prior to the campaign, had just 22,925 channel views. Over 26,000 hours of content was watched online during the three-month campaign, nearly 20-times more content than the previous five years combined. Humans for Humans content had an 88% audience retention rate versus the average YouTube rates of 40 to 50%. Donations increased 415% during the course of the campaign.
Cause & Effect:
Prior to the campaign, engagement with Raise The Roof content was minimal and donations were flat.
Credits:
Client: Raising the Roof
Executive director: Carolann Barr
Director of development: Arundel Gibson
Marketing and communications manager: Caitlin Boros
Agency: Leo Burnett
CCO: Judy John
CDs: Judy John, Lisa Greenberg, Sean Ohlenkamp
Group CDs: Steve Persico, Anthony Chelvanathan
CW: Steve Persico
AD: Anthony Chelvanathan
Digital designer: Sean Perkins
Developer: Jacqueline Adediji
Flash developer: Chad Elston
Agency producers: Franca Piacente, Kim Burchiel
Director: Angie Bird (OPC/Family Style)
Photographer: Viktor Cahoj (OPC/Family Style)
Group account director: Natasha Dagenais
Account supervisor: Kayla Osmond
Planner: Lisa Hart
Project manager: Faran Qureshi
Production company: OPC/Family Style
Executive producers: Harland Weiss, Liz Dussault
Director of photography: Viktor Cahoj
Producer: Michelle Woodward
Casting: Shasta Lutz
Editing company: Rooster Post Production
Editors: Izzy Ehrlich, Moe Ismail
Producer: Melissa Kahn
Transfer/Online: Alter Ego/Fort York
Producers: Tricia Hagoriles, Ernie Mordak, Amanda Lariviere
Music Company: The Eggplant
Producer: Rocco Gagliese, Nicola Treadgold
Sound Mixer: Nathan Handy
Media Agency: M&K Media
Partners/Planners: Julie McIlroy, Niamh Barry
