“In Her Shoes” - CIBC and Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) is one of Canada’s “big 5” players in the banking category. Each bank uses sponsorship as a vehicle to drive brand affinity amongst consumers. CIBC’s sponsorship of Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation is the longest standing marquee partnership within the competitive set.
The CIBC Run For The Cure (RFTC) has been raising funds for breast cancer for over two decades. In that time however dozens of other charity events have sprung up. The CIBC Run for the Cure is no longer new ‘news’ and edgier charity campaigns like the ALS Challenge and Movember are stealing consumer’s attention. The brand’s challenge was to break-through an extremely cluttered cause marketing space and remind Canadians how devastating a breast cancer diagnosis can be and how important the cause and the Run truly are.
The brand’s key insight was that those who have been personally impacted by breast cancer are most likely to participate or donate to the CIBC Run for the Cure (76%). Knowing that the most compelling reason for an individual to participate or donate is a personal connection to the cause,the objective was to connect with people and evoke an emotional response. To make that personal connection, they chose to tell the story of a breast cancer survivor. By showing the full arc of the narrative, viewers would feel how breast cancer affects a person from diagnosis through treatment. To achieve they created a special body-mounted camera that allowed the viewer to feel like they were a part of the story.
Using a social video as the hero of our campaign provided an opportunity to engage with a captive audience in the digital space and tell a longer story. The video was housed on YouTube but shared through various other social media channels.
The team found an actual breast cancer survivor named Anne who was willing to have her story recreated. Anne’s journey was shared in brief but telling 5-second increments. A 2-minutes video enabled the team to show Anne’s life before the diagnosis, though to the discovery of the cancer, to the sadness of telling her family, to her treatments and eventually to her surgery, recovery and her eventual celebratory participation in the CIBC Run for the Cure.
With over a million views it is the most viewed film in CIBC Run For The Cure history. Research showed that over 90% of Run participants mentioned CIBC as a sponsor completely unaided, which is double that of any other sponsor.
