The Nation's Health

Sick Kids' "Unpause" via Toronto's Cossette

Cossette’s latest campaign for SickKids Hospital in Toronto launched this week, leveraging the most ambitious brand campaign in SickKids history – the ‘Better Tomorrows’ campaign – which saw 45 spots (a different one each day) aired to show a different daily glimpse behind the walls of SickKids.

This year’s campaign runs for eight weeks and highlights include: Commercial break domination: A 2-minute TV spot – ‘Better Tomorrows’ wrap-up –airing during ‘appointment TV’ programming, including the 49th Country Music Awards, Figure Skating Championships, It’s a Wonderful Life, and other top-rated shows, including those across the CTV network. This began airing on November 2 and will run through end of December.

“Life on Pause” donation concept: SickKids has always featured real patient stories in our campaigns. There is one thing that is true about every story – people want to know how it ends. There is also one thing that is true about a child diagnosed with an illness – their entire family’s life comes to a temporary halt, and everything but the child’s health care is effectively put on pause.

This year, we are featuring videos of patients whose life stories have been put “on pause”, and we’re inviting donors to help “unpause” their video story by making a donation online. Each video’s donation goal will be tied to the individual patient’s story. For example, for Kael’s video, we will be asking for 440 donors, which represents the number of days he spent at SickKids. Video stories will only be fully revealed once a declared number of donors has been reached.

Potential donors will also be able to see the “social proof” of others who have already made a donation, giving them a sense of being part of something bigger than just themselves. Once videos have been “unpaused”, they will also be released more broadly; for example – in social media.

Creative Credits:   
Advertising Agency: Cossette, Toronto, Canada
Chief Creative Officers/Creative Directors: Carlos Moreno, Peter Ignazi
Associate Creative Director: Jamie Cordwell
Art Director: Jessica Wong
Copywriter: Darrel Knight
Senior Interactive Designer: Gustavo Oregel
Agency Producer: Heather Moshoian
Account Executive: Olivia Figliomeni
Account Director: Hanh Vo
VP, National Brand Director: Steve Groh
SVP, National Client Lead: Andrea Cook
Strategist: Kevin McHugh
VP, Experience Strategist: Tara O'Doherty
Production House: Skin & Bones
Director/Cameraman: Mark Zibert
DOPs: Andy Fererra, Marco Baldonado
Producer: Joan Bell
Editing House: Saints Editorial
Editor: Danica Pardo
Assistant Editor: Cam Lasovich
Transfer Facility: Alter Ego
Online Facility: Alter Ego
Audio House: Eggplant