ABOUT

Harrison is an eight-year-old boy dying from a disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Harrison's Fund was set up to raise money to fund the research that might buy him some time. Up against high-profile charities with big budgets, we knew that we needed a press ad that raised awareness of the plight of children with DMD in an innovative way.

You would think that raising money to save dying kids would be relatively easy. But in the UK, more people choose to give their hard earned money to charities that care for animals. We wondered if it would actually be easier to raise money for Harrison if he were a dog.

We ran two digital ads identical in every way bar the image – one had a shot of Harrison, the other picture of a dog we found on the internet. The dog drove twice as many click-throughs as the child. So when some free space became available in the London Evening Standard we ran a press ad asking ‘would you give £5 to help save Harrison from a slow and painful death?’

Our one, simple press ad has certainly grabbed attention. Newspapers covered the story and people have debated and donated from around the world.

Conversations really took off online too. Facebook reach increased by over 30% and engagement increased by almost 60%. A brilliant outcome considering there was no paid promotion, and results came entirely from organic engagement with the ad.

Harrison’s Fund has gone from raising £190,000 in 2012 to £410,000 in 2014. Our awareness campaign has definitely been noticed and helped track 10 to 20% above that for the first four months of this year.

The charity is now very much involved in trying to change legislation, and speed up the regulatory process for funding and approving the drugs that could help save Harrison and boys like him.