| Title | THE MOST POWERFUL ARM EVER INVENTED |
| Brand | SAVE OUR SONS & DUCHENNE FOUNDATION |
| Product / Service | DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY CHARITY |
| Category | A06. Best Use of Other Digital Platforms in a Direct Campaign |
| Entrant | HAVAS WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Entrant Company | HAVAS WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Advertising Agency | HAVAS WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Jennifer Mcdermott | Red Agency | Account Manager |
| Rachel White | Red Agency | Associate Director |
| Red Agency | Pr Agency | |
| Ophenia Liang (Reseo) | Reactive | Search Account Director |
| Luke Andersen | Reactive | Front End Developer |
| Sudeep Shakya | Reactive | Senior Developer |
| Gabriel Tamborini | Reactive | Art Director |
| Hiedi Clague | Reactive | Senior Project Manager |
| Tim Buesing | Reactive | Creative Director |
| Reactive | Digital Agency | |
| Alyssa Mcclelland | Finch | Director |
| Rob Galluzzo | Finch | Executive Producer |
| Sophie Thiellon | Finch | Producer |
| Emad Tahtouh | Finch | Director Of Applied Technology And Innovation |
| Finch | Production Company | |
| Marissa Davies | Havas Worlwide Australia | Account Director |
| Simon Fowler | Havas Worldwide Australia | Copywriter |
| Nicole Hetherington | Havas Worldwide Australia | Art Director |
| Steve Coll | Havas Worldwide Australia | Executive Creative Director |
Save Our Sons desperately needed $1.75m to fund urgent clinical trials that could stop Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) – a rare and fatal condition that deteriorates the muscles in thousands of Australian children. Our goal was to raise money for the trials. But, as a rare disease, DMD has virtually no awareness within Australia. So, with no money for media, we had to rely on the direct involvement of Australians to make our campaign work. Our strategy was to create a newsworthy innovation and invite Australians to take part in something they’d never done before.
Children with DMD lose the strength in all of their muscles. Some of the first affected are in their arms – taking away their ability to write. This was our inspiration for The Most Powerful Arm – invented for people to sign on behalf of those who couldn’t. To make the arm more powerful we gave it a font based on the handwriting of Jacob Lancaster, a 19 year old from Sydney with DMD. Jacob lost the ability to write when he was 12, so we sampled the last thing he ever wrote – a Mother’s Day card.
We created ‘The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented’ - the world’s first petition signing robot. Then we invited Aussies to use it to sign their name on an online petition that would persuade the Australian Government to fund these trials. By asking people to login via Facebook to sign, we were able to automatically share a photo of the robot signing their name to their facebook wall, creating a massive viral effect and huge media coverage. Our aim was to get enough support from the Australian public to persuade the Government to fund these urgent clinical trials.
With no media budget, The Most Powerful Arm turned an unknown charity into national news. Our mix of earned media, viral, in-programme placement and ambient achieved coverage in 300 technology/creative blogs, 5 prime-time national television shows, and every national newspaper – an astonishing $7.9m of earned media. Our viral campaign generated 6.5 million Facebook impressions and 32,000 signatures, becoming the most successful Australian health-related petition ever. It’s the first Facebook petition to be tabled by the Senate. And most amazingly of all, a pharmaceutical company who saw the campaign actually offered to fund the trials themselves.