We discovered that the stigma surrounding the disease makes many sufferers uncomfortable discussing their situation with friends or family. Instead, many turn online for support. Forums and blogs are full of deeply emotional posts where people anonymously share their physical and mental health troubles, financial issues, social isolation, frustration and fear. We knew that if we could bring this hidden reality to the public, Canadians would feel moved to help Diabetes Canada end diabetes. So we used the words of those living with diabetes as the backbone of our campaign.

We collected the most poignant online comments written by people with diabetes. Then we worked with a songwriter to use them as the lyrics to an original song.

We created a music video that features all the types of people who could be living with diabetes – mothers, teachers, professionals – to show that this disease affects people from all walks of life.

We used the new Diabetes Canada branding, which incorporates a strikethrough in the logo, to show how ending diabetes would transform people’s lives, turning their comments from negative to positive.

We uploaded the song to iTunes, hosted the full-length music video online and created 15 and 30 second versions for television, leading people online to watch the full version and donate to Diabetes Canada.

We unveiled the original song by airing our first spots during the Canadian broadcast of the Grammy Awards.

The launch campaign saw terrific engagement in the first days after its introduction (Feb 13-17).

2.37MM people saw the PSA during the Grammys

More than 50,000 online views of the full-length music video

9,740 likes and shares supported well over half a million impressions (583,802)

66% increase in new Facebook and Twitter followers vs prior month

147 stories resulted in 12,534,600 impressions across major TV outlets, dailies and online.

And most importantly, there was a 90% increase in donations (revenue) from the previous year, same period.