ABOUT

St. Michael's Hospital Foundation had a goal to grow the donor base and boost brand engagement among younger, more diverse audiences. To do this, they set up a live event, a Pickle-Ball tournament, to build awareness, attract new diverse donors that span generations and demographics, attract mission-aligned sponsors, and create shareable, culturally relevant content to heighten engagement.

Since the event was a charity Pickleball tournament—and with a new Ben Stiller movie about pickleball, The Dink, on the horizon—St. Mike's stepped up and issued a playful challenge to the film’s star, inviting Stiller to join the event in support of a good cause. The invitation was made with a video and that's where Holiday United Group was hired to execute the video.

The video features Dr. Connelley, the hospital's sports cardiologist for professional athletes and a renowned clinician-scientist. He stares straight to the camera directly calling out Ben Stiller to challenge him to a Pickle Ball match at the Paddle Royale Pickle Ball event.

The video went out on social media and generated quite the buzz.

The campaign garnered more than 500K views, with 70% engagement from people under 50. Simplii Financial jumped on as Presenting Sponsor, and partnerships with Myoflex and Rehab Collective followed. It sparked major community giving, including a surge in first-time donors, and a $1.2M gift that came in post-event. We gained a dozen new patient stories and increased donor diversity. Dr. Connelly’s video was by far the Foundation’s most successful social post across every measurable metric, with influencer and celebrity amplification and nearly 1,000 shares.
Paddle Royale was a runaway success. We sold out in advance, surpassed our fundraising goal by $42,000 and counting—raising an incredible $242,000—and brought St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation’s vision of exceptional care without exception to millions.

And then finally, although Ben couldn't make it to the event, he did respond with a video of his own that was then posted on X, Instagram and Facebook.