OMA – Doctor’s Day 2020
The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) is a membership organization that represents the political, clinical and economic interests of Ontario physicians. Practicing physicians, residents, and medical students enrolled in any of the six Ontario faculties of medicine are eligible for OMA membership. The OMA runs programs to encourage healthy living practices and illness prevention.
Industry
— Healthcare
— Associations
Branding to
— Improve corporate reputation
— Expand an offering
Services
— Digital marketing & content
— Advertising & promotion
— Website design & development
— Corporate communications
The Situation
The Covid-19 pandemic was reaching full force and doctors were squarely on the front lines having to work double and sometimes triple shifts, being quarantined from their families and putting themselves in constant risk through intense exposure to the virus. The Ontario Medical Association wanted to leverage the annual celebration of doctors on May 1st, into something bigger with greater exposure and awareness, showing doctors just how much all Ontarians cared and appreciated their service.
The challenge was that doctors were already being celebrated across Canada and overseas with banging of pots, clapping hands and various anthems composed by celebrities and shared widely on social media. Compounding this challenge was a short time frame: Yield Branding was briefed less than five weeks before Doctor’s Day, and any initiative we developed would have to be in market weeks before in the run up to the event itself.
The human behaviour catalyst
People want to recognize those that making a sacrifice, but they want to feel they are part of collective that is doing so.
The Solution
The creative concept was “Shine a Light for Doctors”, leveraging the ubiquitous smartphone and its flashlight that has become the modern form of saluting artists at a performance. It was simple for participants to engage as the light can be shone anywhere after dark and the idea of light symbolizes “finding a way in the dark” which is what conceptually doctors were doing.
There was limited money for mainstream media so social media became the spear carrier for the campaign along with a limited flight of broadcast TV and a few insertions in newspaper.A landing page was quickly built to be the destination for information and assets. It explained the importance of Doctor’s Day, how to participate, as well as inviting people to pledge their commitment to participate.
To generate the expectation and demonstrate the action we wanted people to do, Yield captured a number of volunteers, shining their flashlights and saluting doctors. Additionally, people were invited to film and submit their own personal salute to doctors which were edited together and posted on social channels. A newspaper ad inviting participation was run during the week prior to Doctor’s Day in the Toronto Star and Globe & Mail. The :15 TV spot aired for a week on the Corus, CTV and Global networks reaching the entire province.
On the evening of Doctor’s Day, Yield had crews filming people ‘shining their light’ across Toronto, while thousands posted personal pictures and videos of themselves and their neighbours doing the same.
The Yield
The omni-channel campaign was measured across a number of KPI’s, though primarily through engagement in social media, traditional media and PR The landing page had close to 50,000 views and registered 750 commitments to participate. PR earned 260 total media hits (print or broadcast channels) that picked up the story generating over 60,000,000 impressions.
Social Media (paid and organic) generated close to 1,000,000 engagements and over 25,000,000 impressions on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter while there were over 10,000 user generated posts of people shining a light.
