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Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has outgrown its current treatment facilities for children facing the most rare and difficult-to-treat cancers which is a problem because cancer is the biggest killer of one to 14-year-olds in the UK.

Build it. Beat it., an interactive digital out of home (DOOH) campaign from Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity), enlists two of the hospital’s young patients to help support its efforts to raise £300 million to build an urgently needed new Children’s Cancer Centre.

Originally conceived by Open Creates, the DOOH idea was a winner in Ocean’s annual digital creative competition which seeks bold original new work.

The campaign plays delightfully with the breadth and scale of the Four Dials, Ocean’s 17.3m wide by 6.7m high curved screen at Westfield Stratford City London to dramatise how seriously ill children have outgrown the space they are being treated in.

Using Ocean’s DeepScreen® format, the 3D work sees patients Otto, (9), and Sumayyah, (11), try to clear the screen by pushing one section, and then another out of the frame, with no success. They scratch their heads, confused about how they can make more room. The copy then expands, getting even bigger as the GOSH patients become frustrated and give up. They are having fun, being playful, but there’s a tension as they struggle to make any headway.

As audiences watch, they are invited to scan a QR code and donate to help Build it. Beat it. When a donation activates a code, a CGI visualisation of the Children’s Cancer Centre springs into life, a direct impact of their support. The children run out of the new building and towards us with a personal thank you message, joyfully breaking out of the screen, making full use of the 3D effect in a public display of gratitude and engagement.

The campaign ran for three days as a daily nine hour domination, supported by GOSH Charity ambassadors and fundraisers in the experiential space beneath the screen and wider signposting on other Ocean screens within the Westfield Stratford City destination.

The message is simple and Ocean's competition judges liked how it manifests donations in real time. It’s about normal kids that need some help, something we can all get behind.

Ocean’s 2024 digital creative competition is now open for entries. The closing date is 23 August.