HEART & STROKE x ALWAYS-ON STRATEGY
Consolidating Heart and Stroke's social presence from 150 provincial and regional accounts into unified national voices on Facebook and Twitter - made it easier to streamline our messaging and create greater impact. From here we focused on building our online community; nurturing relationships, providing education, exercise tips, recipes and more. Ensuring our spaces became the digital hub for charitable inspiration to fuel life actions.
Social media was on the precipices of a major culture shift during this time: with fundamental updates rolling out hot from Facebook and Instagram - it was inevitable that social interaction between brands and the general public would not only get stronger, but set the tone, and define digital history.
HEART & STROKE x JAMIE OLIVER
The power of food has a primal space for our hearts - in our homes, schools, at work - all which bind us to the tastiest bits of life. The Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition was created to build awareness about the effects of marketing bad food and beverages to children in Canada. And the stats didn't lie - heart disease is one of the leading causes of death, and with it being diet related - we needed a wake up call to bless generations ahead with longer lifespans.
Heart and Stroke hosted a panel discussion on how Canada can help improve children's nutrition. We had the honour of partnering with Jamie Oliver, a leader in the Food Revolution, who profoundly wishes for people to create sustainable environments that educate every child about food, inspire families to cook, and empower everyone to defy obesity.
Taking full advantage of Facebook's hot new feature: Facebook Live, Heart and Stroke was able to organically capture an additional 100k glowing hearts across Canada. This format was especially useful for attracting a younger audience - drawn in by the ability to connect in real time, and learn more about food. Synergy between raising awareness, influencing parental and educational figures, and even decision makers, while inspiring the generation of tomorrow to bring life to food.
HEART & STROKE x BRAND LAUNCH
Spearheading Heart and Stroke’s Instagram launch leading up to the first major brand refresh in over 60 years was a major moment on its own. Debuting alongside it, was an entirely new creative campaign: LIFE, we don't want you to miss it. Included were 20 short video clips pulled from peoples everyday lives, limited edition Roots items, and an entirely new look. This brand transformation was happening inside and out - with a new research strategy, greater focus on women’s health, advocating for policies around children’s nutrition and indigenous communities.
Instagram looked a little different too - releasing new features that we leveraged like: prompting users to sign up for newsletters, giving people the ability to capture their life on live video, and increasing the video length to 30-second ads for all advertisers.
LIFE, here we come
HEART & STROKE x FUNDRAISERS
There is no shortage of Heart and Stroke supporters in Canada - with annual cycling events, dedicated Heart Month canvassers, Jump Rope For Heart Kids, the Heart&Stroke Lottery, and bespoke fundraisers like Celebrity Ice Hockey Challenges. Using our channels as a voice for coast-to-coast fundraisers was a major part of Heart and Stroke's regular drumbeat cadence - ensuring Canadians never missed a community beat.
HEART & STROKE x RIDE FOR HEART
Canada’s largest single-day cycling event, the Becel Ride for Heart, introduced its first ever Ride/Walk component this year. And who better to lead the charge than Drake's BFF, the “Six” dad - Norm Kelly.
Leading the Ride for Heart social campaign and covering the event live - was just as exhilarating as biking the 50km the year before (but dryer 🌧)
The Heart and Stroke social channels played a valuable role in recruitment, retention and fundraising for the event itself. As a result - increasing participant and donor engagement, creating a sense of community, amplifying awareness pre-event day, providing a channel for two-way dialogue and real-time updates. While also harnessing the magic that takes place day of - a sea of people moving in unison down a traffic-free expressway all with a common life-saving goal.
HEART & STROKE x JORDAN BOYD
Greg Dobson lost his 16 year old brother, Jordan Boyd, to a sudden cardiac arrest while playing ice hockey.
Greg decided to honor his little brother's life by creating a fundraiser that supports research and investigation into inherited heart diseases, early detection and cures - this became the annual Jordan Boyd Celebrity Ice Hockey Challenge. An event we supported online and in person.
Naturally receiving a flood of support from the likes of Gerry Dee, Brad Marchand, Riley Barber and more - a total of $150K was raised that year.
HEART & STROKE x AED ARENA
An estimated 35,000 cardiac arrests happen each year in Canada. With support of the Federal Government, Heart and Stroke is on a mission: install life-saving AEDs (automated external defibrillator's) into community arenas - in every province and territory, and train more than 20,000 staff and users on how to use it in the event of sudden cardiac arrest.
To bring this to life we shifted remaining budget dollars into a social campaign. Hyper targeting to reach a relevant audiences, encouraging them to take action within their community, and at their local arenas. To date - there's over 1,600 AEDs put in place, nationwide so far - already saving three lives during the initiative.
There’s no denying that an AED is the difference between life and death.