By mid November 2014, the Ebola crisis was no longer leading news – even though 140 new cases were reported each day and thousands of healthcare workers were risking their lives to fight the disease.

Doctors of the World was one of many organizations on the ground in West Africa. They wanted to get the courageous Ebola fighters from their organization, and others, back into the spotlight. Unfortunately, they had zero budget, and big media buys are expensive. Our strategy? Instead of paying for media, we set out to get the ultimate PR for free.

Each year since 1927, the world’s most influential people have appeared on the cover of Time, as the magazine’s person of the year. So we created a campaign rallying Doctors of the World’s fans behind an ambitious goal: To make the Ebola fighters Time Magazine’s person of the year. The campaign took off. We aimed for 10 000 signatures in one week. We got that within the first 24 hours. One week later, Doctors of the World personally delivered tens-of-thousands of signatures to the Time Editor-in-Chief. A few days later, she replied. And then, on December 10th, we woke up to the news: Ebola fighters had been named Time’s Person of the year.

It was the ultimate PR. In the process, the campaign increased Doctors of the World’s social following by 70%. We also like to think it swayed the vote. But what’s really important is that these brave healthcare workers got the credit they deserve.

Every year, Time Magazine announces their Person of the Year around mid December. Our petition and social campaign to engage fans launched on Friday November 12th.

The campaign consisted of a variety of social posts calling fans to action and asking them to sign the petition. After one week of petitioning, Doctors of the World personally delivered tens-of-thousands of signatures to the Time Editor-in-Chief, Nancy Gibbs. In order to ensure that the signatures reached Nancy, we made contact with Nancy a few weeks before delivering our signatures and made her aware of the campaign objectives. The campaign ran largely according to plan throughout, and little adaptation was needed.

Apart from agency fees and photography costs (all of which amounted to less than $8000) Doctors of the World’s budget for the campaign was zero. Despite this, in just seven days around Halloween, the campaign generated approximately $120 000, which is enough to equip 4600 Ebola doctors. This represents a 1400% return on investment. Additionally, in 72 hours, the campaign doubled Doctors of The World’s lifetime donor database. In the same 72 hours, Doctors of the World’s social following increased by 45% and we generated 215 million free media impressions. The campaign featured in esteemed media such as The Huffington Post, Inside Edition, CNN, Today, NBC, USAToday, New York Times and The Washington Post. Ultimately, the campaign took a relatively small non-profit, placed them at the forefront of a controversial story and in just seven days, and raised an unprecedented number of donations for the organization.