Red Cross - The Pool Party
Agency: ICF Olson
Role: Art Director / Designer
In 2017, drownings were reaching record highs in regions across Canada. Our mission for the Canadian Red Cross was to cut through the noise of the news that was easy to ignore and create an emotional impact on the viewer to hammer home the importance of water safety – especially for children. We hijacked the popular social media video trope of “we put a camera on a ___” and used the perspective of a child, left unattended at a pool party, to seize our audience in moment of terror as the unthinkable happens and the child falls into the pool.
We used the storytelling trope of first-person video to show the terror of drowning from a child’s perspective. Our 30-second spot features an uncomfortable cliffhanger that drives viewers to watch the full story at a microsite. On the site, we featured additional video to help the audience understand what drowning really looks like, provided sign-up for first aid courses, and offered important facts regarding drowning and water safety. To support the video, we also implemented a social media campaign, developed a printable infographic, played previews in cinema, and ran an out-of-home campaign.
Key Results:
• 131,000 Facebook views in less than a week
• Aired 4-5 times per day on over 50 national channels to reach our target audience
• 18 million Out-of-Home impressions
• 300,000 views on media outlets
• 153,000 impressions from Cineplex pre-roll – to a captive audience
• 508,212 TV impressions
• 135,087 print media impressions from HELLO! Canada magazine
Award won:
Bronze - Advertising - Creativepool Awards. May 2018,
