Spikes Asia

Mom's Bed

LEO BURNETT, Seoul / MCDONALD'S / 2024

Presentation Image
Supporting Content
Demo Film

Overview

Entries

Credits

Overview

Background

The RMHC House is a homelike facility provided by Ronald McDonald House Charities, located right next door to hospitals, where families with sick children can stay like home during the hospitalization. In South Korea, there is only one RMHC House in Yangsan, 388 kilometers away from Seoul, despite most children's medical centers being situated in the capital city. A new RMHC House is desperately needed in Seoul.

McDonald’s has been a longstanding partner of Ronald McDonald House Charity. McDonald's aimed to create a campaign to illuminate these overlooked hardships and underscore the urgent need for Korea’s 2nd RMHC House.

Idea

We transformed dozens of city benches into visual representations of tiny caregiver beds. To repurpose Seoul City's common benches, closely resembling the confined dimensions of caregiver beds, we marked universal bed size guidelines around the benches to match the dimensions of king, queen, double, and even a single-size bed, creating a compelling visual representation of the challenging living conditions faced by thousands of Korean mothers in hospitals. To shed light on the country’s unique caregiving culture and the overlooked hardships faced by parents, each Mom’s Bed installation was designed to awaken people to the confined dimensions of caregiver beds, eliciting empathy and prompting meaningful responses. Strategically positioned across Seoul, Mom's Beds were found in key locations such as parks and landmarks like Cheonggyecheon, frequented by over 300,000 visitors daily. Benches in front of McDonald's restaurants also served as platforms, inviting people to recline and experience the challenging conditions.

Strategy

McDonald’s aimed to enhance the reputation as a socially responsible brand by demonstrating their commitment to making a positive impact in the community by utilizing various PR channels. We utilized TV broadcasting to cover the public and extended the coverage by creating online content.

Now, the ubiquitous benches encouraged people to experience and directed them to the link to our content and the donations. Scattered across the city, dozens of Mom's Beds installation aimed to provide individuals with the opportunity to lay down on them, allowing for a firsthand experience of the cramped conditions akin to those faced by mothers in hospital caregiver beds. Furthermore, featuring QR codes, each bed enabled people to access to genuine stories of mothers in hospitals, accompanied by a call-to-action for contributing to the construction of Seoul's first RMHC House.

Execution

To raise awareness widely on the issue, we transformed benches into Mom's Beds in key locations such as parks and landmarks like Cheonggyecheon, frequented by over 300,000 visitors daily. Benches in front of McDonald's restaurants also served as platforms, inviting people to recline and experience the challenging conditions. The initiative also expanded to a large-scale installation in Starfield Goyang, one of major shopping malls in Seoul area. In Starfield, we displayed 21 beds, each with the real names of families, conveying the genuine stories of 8 families with sick children. By using a 16-meter-tall media tower and 78-meter-long panorama screens, we also demonstrated how many parents spend years in hospitals, enduring a life confined to beds as small as 160x60cm.

The overall initiative aimed to allow people to lie down, share them on social media, and relate to the need for an RMHC House while also making donations through QR.

Outcome

The Mom’s Beds resonated widely, with an estimated reach of over 377 million. The campaign resulted in an unprecedented $300K+ in donations, with 1,827 people signing up to become yearly donors through one-time fundraising broadcast alone. YouTube channels covered the campaign, introducing RMHC to their subscribers and emphasizing the need for a RMHC House in Seoul. The campaign also garnered extensive media coverage with over 50 media outlets covering the campaign and underscoring the imperative for an RMHC House. Thousands of people, including influencers, actively supported the cause by lying down on symbolic beds and sharing their experiences on social media.

The significant surge in support finally led to Seoul City’s approval for a new RMHC House site through an engagement of Seoul National University Hospital, situated next to Seoul's largest children's hospital. Beyond raising awareness, the campaign mobilized tangible support, exemplifying its effectiveness in addressing the critical needs.

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