Our research has shown that SickKids donors who follow the hospital's social media pages seek to see the power of their donations. Our objective was to demonstrate to SickKids followers the impact their donations have on the many lives of SickKids patients.

We wanted to show donors what their support was achieving, and there was no more of a powerful proof than to show a photo of a happy and healthy child who may not have been here today if it was not for SickKids and its donors.

Using the #10YearChallenge was an exceptional and impactful way to show the incredible transformation of SickKids patients in their battle against illness.

The #10YearChallenge became a social media craze overnight. Millions of people across all major social media networks shared two side-by-side photos of themselves ten years apart; one from 2009 and one from 2019.

We saw this as an opportunity for SickKids to attach their cause to this turn-of-the-year viral trend and draw organic attention to their social media pages.

We created #SickKidsVS#10YearChallenge: a unique and simple content play that showcased the transformative nature of SickKids hospital. In a series of social posts, we told success stories of former patients whose lives have transformed over the last 10 years thanks to the care they received at SickKids. Each social post ending with the line “The difference is SickKids.”

Research into our donor base showed that an important motivator for their continued support is to see the everlasting impact their donations make on sick children.

In addition, many of them follow SickKids social media pages to see how our patients are bravely overcoming some of the worlds toughest illnesses. This inspired us to look for special ways to show our core supporters how their help changes thousands of lives.

Through social media listening, we observed millions of people around the world posting pictures of themselves ten years ago side by side with a picture of themselves today, under the #10YearChallenge.

We realized that if the challenge is taken through the lens of SickKids, we can give it a complete new purpose. Using the same two image format we were able to instantly tell the story of patient transformation at SickKids and how donors helped make it happen.

The #10YearChallenge was an opportunity to deliver a timely response that was both on-brand and effective in its simplicity. The idea went from conception to execution in just one day. We knew that we would have to act quickly in order to capture the momentum of the trending topic.

We selected four of the most compelling stories of SickKids patients who battled life-altering medical conditions a decade ago, but overcame each of their unique challenges.

For example, one post shares the story of a former patient, Madi Scott, an Elon University dance team captain preparing to graduate with two degrees, who, ten years earlier, was a cancer patient facing an uncertain future.

In one day (January 18, 2019), we posted our stories across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

In less than 24 hours, we created the best performing social posts for SickKids Foundation to date. Each post was not only widely shared and liked, but also inspired and encouraged many people to share their family experience with SickKids and their own #10YearChallenge photos in replies and comments.

Key Highlights:

Reached over 439,000 people with $0 spent on media

15x more post engagement than SickKids Foundation’s Facebook page average

- Average = 332 engagements per post

- Achieved = 4,989 engagements

6x more post engagement than SickKids Foundation’s Instagram page average

- Average = 1,300 engagements per post

- Achieved = 8,065 engagements