Every year The Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) is the difference between life and death for thousands of people in the outback. But for Australia’s young, urban population they are becoming increasingly irrelevant. With a dwindling, elderly donor (average age 65+), a crisis loomed for an organisation that relies on charitable funding for half its income.

We needed to make it more relevant and bring younger people closer to the service, so they could see the life-saving care they deliver every day and make people proud to support the RFDS.

Our idea: ‘Buy the Sky’ www.buythesky.com.au

Our strategy focused on promoting the simple and creative idea to allow you to buy a patch of sky on the RFDS flight paths and become part of the team in a very real and tangible way. In media we would highlight how the cash raised would help secure the future of the service and lead to greater investment in infrastructure and staffing. Routes were mapped divided into precise km squares with the patches put on sale at buythesky.com.au. Sky owners then received flight alerts as planes flew through their patch of sky via an app sharing details of the mission.

The campaign achieved:

•33,480 site visits. Average visit 3+ minutes.

•79% of sky sales in the target demographic (29-49).

•Audience reach of 37 million+.

•130 pieces of coverage, including Sunrise, The Australian and Daily Telegraph.

Buy the Sky is relevant to the Royal Flying Doctor Service because it allowed all Australians to own a piece of sky along one of their flight paths. Even more importantly, sky owners received an SMS or email letting them know their donation was at work each time a plane flew through their patch. The campaign proved a great way to create an emotional and physical relationship between Australians and this iconic service.

So far the campaign is tracking well with:

• Click to conversion rate improved 521%.

• Cost per donation improved by 539%.

• 60% of people opted in for further communication.

• 89,000 site visits.

• 2,085 patches sold.