Donate to Accelerate
Spinal Injuries Association (SIA)
Issue 51 | June 2019
Agency
Engine
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Aaron Goldring Creative Director: Ross Newton Senior Art Director: Simon Nicholls Senior Copywriter: Helen Sharp Art Director: Alban Laurent
Production Team
Director, Clouded Vision: Dean Moore Producer, Clouded Vision: Tom Sweetland Producer, Clouded Vision: Simon Lane Integrated Project Director: Hayley Hobbs Integrated Project Manager: Louise Peacock Director of Creative Technology: Alastair Cole Senior Creative Technologist: Kim Lawrie Creative Technologist: George Devedlaka Editors: Sam Hopkins, Alex Venn Post-production Manager: Hayley Denning Post-production Manager: Elena Sanz
Other Credits
Client Managing Director: Daisy Domenghini Senior Account Manager: Celia Taylor Head of Marketing and Communications, SIA: Andrew Smart Communications and Marketing Officer, SIA: Sophie Davis
Date
March 2019
Background
Every day, 6 people in the UK sustain a life-changing spinal cord injury. For these people, basic everyday tasks become gruelling challenges.
Spinal Injuries Association (SIA) provides vital support to help those affected overcome these challenges, enabling them to rebuild their lives.
The task was to raise awareness of who SIA are, what they do and hopefully raise some funding along the way.
Idea
In a world where most brands are trying to prevent people from skipping their ads, people were encouraged to fast-forward theirs. On Disabled Access Day, the full-motion D6 screens in Manchester city centre were taken over. The ad forced the public to experience the daily frustrations of life with a spinal injury, first hand. Shot from a first-person perspective, the ad showed passers-by exactly what it’s like to complete two basic everyday tasks with a spinal cord injury. The two tasks - making a cup of tea and putting shoes on – both demonstrated that progress is painfully slow, making it excruciating viewing.
Viewers were invited to speed up the progress of the people in the ad by donating £2 to SIA, using an in-built contactless payment device.
Without a donation, the agonising struggle continued, and the task ended in failure.
However, if a donation was made, the ad instantly fast-forwarded through the painstaking struggle to the point where the task was successfully completed. This was the first time it has been possible to fast-forward a DOOH ad, and it gave everyone who engaged with the ad the gratification of instantly seeing the difference their donation makes. Donate to Accelerate - a simple idea that made a life-changing difference to anyone learning to live with a spinal injury.
Results
Everyone who interacted instantly saw the difference their donation makes to spinal cord injured people. For every person that donated, a further 83,000 people learned about SIA’s life-changing work through news and press coverage and social shares. Compared to previous fundraising activity, donations were up by an impressive 295%.
SIA’s website saw a 132% increase in traffic during the month the activity was live. And, crucially, this single ad has inspired SIA to think differently internally about how they reposition their communications and services to celebrate the impact that overcoming everyday challenges can have on the individual.