This campaign was aimed at raising money for patients in West Africa, but appeared in the USA. There are multiple restrictions with regard to healthcare advertising in the USA. One of them affecting this campaign was that each piece of communication needed to clearly indicate where the donated money would be spent. In this instance, approximately 60% of the money would be spent on the fight against Ebola however, Doctors of the World could not guarantee that the rest would go to this fight. For that reason, small legal disclaimers were required on the donation platforms and the advertising elements.

Doctors of the World needed Ebola protective suits for their doctors fighting the disease in West Africa. They asked us to help raise money.

Meanwhile, it was Halloween in America, and the Ebola protective suit exploded across the news and social – but for the wrong reasons. It was becoming 2014’s most controversial Halloween costume, with people wearing it to parties across the country. And since Halloween was days away, we needed to act fast.

Our idea: Turn 2014’s most controversial Halloween costume into donations for real protective suits. We intercepted the controversy, and asked anyone wearing the Ebola Halloween Costume, to donate a real protective suit the next day.

People were directed to our online store, where instead of buying a fake Ebola costume they could donate real Ebola protective gear.

In just 7 days, we raised enough to equip more than 4600 doctors saving lives in West Africa.

The primary goal was to raise money for protective gear, to equip Doctors of The World’s healthcare workers in West Africa.

The secondary goals were to grow Doctors of the World’s donor database and social fanbase, as well as increase awareness in the Doctors of the World brand, which is a relatively small organization in America.

The target audience was anyone engaging in the Ebola Halloween Costume debate – from celebrities and Ebola Halloween Costume haters, to people posting Halloween costume selfies. And since the Halloween costume debate was largely in the USA, the campaign was primarily USA focused.

The Ebola Halloween Costume story hit the headlines approximately one week before Halloween. So we needed to act fast. In just a few days, we built a fully-function donation platform, where instead of buying a fake Ebola Halloween Costume, people could donate real Ebola gear. We set up a social listening team that tracked and responded to anyone posting about the Ebola costume online. To support this, we executed a campaign of press ads and online banners. All these elements were designed to intercept the conversation and encourage donations on our website. Additionally, a PR campaign targeted celebrities and publications discussing the issue.

Since Doctors of the World was in dire need of Ebola gear, and Ebola gear had suddenly gained so much traction in popular culture (albeit for the wrong reasons) the campaign was highly appropriate for both the client and the time in which it existed.

With a budget of zero, and in just 7 days around Halloween, the campaign generated enough to equip more than 4600 Ebola doctors saving lives in West Africa. In the 72 around Halloween, the campaign increased Doctors of the World’s social following by more than 45% and it doubled their lifetime donor database. This increased database will have a hugely positive impact on Doctors of the World’s future fundraising endeavors. In addition to this, unprecedented awareness was achieved for Doctors of the World. The campaign took a relatively unknown non-profit organization in America and placed it at the forefront of leading news story. In fact more than 215 million free media impressions were earned across digital and traditional channels, with the campaign featuring in publications and on websites such as The Huffington Post, CNN, Inside Edition, NBC, Today and many more.

The strategy was to intercept the Ebola Halloween costume controversy and activate anyone wearing the costume to donate a real protective suit the next day.

At the time of the campaign, the Ebola crisis was the worst in history, and Doctors of the World were in dire need of protective suits for their doctors saving lives in West Africa. For this reason, the campaign was highly relevant to the needs of the brand.

We created a range of elements to directly target anyone engaged in the Ebola costume controversy. This included a social campaign intercepting people tweeting about the costume, a press campaign in publications discussing the issue and a website, activating people to donate. In this way, the campaign was direct, promotional and activational.

Doctors of World needed Ebola protective suits for their doctors fighting in West Africa. They asked us to help raise money for these suits.

Meanwhile, it was Halloween in America, and the Ebola protective suit had exploded across news and social media – but for the wrong reasons. It was becoming 2014’s most controversial Halloween costume, with people wearing it to parties and Ebola Costume selfies filling social feeds.

And since Halloween was days away, we needed to act fast.