2015 Gold Charity

ais London

Harrison's Fund

I wish my son was a dog

The Team

Geoff Gower - Executive Creative Director, Kevin Bratley - Creative Director, Oliver Enskat - Head of Creative Services, Dawn O’Malley - Account Manager, Alex Smith - CEO

Campaign overview

Harrison is an eight-year-old boy dying from a disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), which affects around one in 3,600 boys. Harrison’s Fund is a charity set up to raise money to fund the research that might buy him some time.

Up against high-profile charities with big budgets, the organisation knew it needed to raise awareness of the plight of children with DMD in an innovative way.

With one simple advert, Harrison’s Fund managed to generate huge attention and debate around the world, as well as prompt all-important donations.

Strategy

You would think that raising money to save dying kids would be relatively easy. But in the UK, more people choose to give their hard earned money to charities that care for animals.

The team wondered if it would be easier to raise money for Harrison if he were a dog.

By drawing public attention to the priority given to animal welfare over human care, the campaign aimed to stir awareness and debate that would lead to a change in behaviour.

Creativity

Two online adverts, identical in every way bar the image, were run on the same media network with the same weighting. One showed Harrison; the other a picture of a dog taken from the internet. Of the 350,757 impressions, Harrison’s advert received 111 clicks compared to 230 for the dog.

So when some free space became available in the London Evening Standard, the team ran a press ad asking ‘would you give £5 to help save Harrison from a slow and painful death?’ with the dog’s image. The ad copy explained that this dog wasn’t actually Harrison and went on to tell the story of the boy with DMD.

Results

The campaign enjoyed a brilliant outcome, especially with no paid promotion and results entirely down to organic engagement with the ad. It attracted newspaper coverage, public attention and donations from around the world, with awareness rising by up to 20%. Facebook reach increased by more than 30% and engagement by almost 60%.

Harrison’s Fund raised £410,000 in 2014 compared with £190,000 in 2012.

The charity now works towards changing legislation to speed up the regulatory process for funding and approving the drugs that could help save Harrison and boys like him.