Inspired by the native functionality of Instagram – that when you double tap on an image, the heart appears – we realized that you can keep double tapping on an image and the heart will keep appearing. And so, the idea of Social CPR was born – a simple Instagram post that could demonstrate the ease of the new CPR guidelines in a relevant way. In a way that Instagram users would fully understand. And in a way to communicate that continuous compressions are all that are needed to keep blood pumping to the heart and brain until medical help can arrive.

A simple static post was the answer to showing its followers on Instagram how administering CPR is really easy. The post showed the torso of a man lying on grass, seemingly unconscious. And at the bottom of the image was a line and a call to action that read: Keep double tapping to see how easy hands-only CPR can be. With the image perfectly cropped and sized, we knew that when someone double tapped his chest, the Instagram heart would appear directly over the man’s heart. And when they kept double tapping, the heart would continue to appear – and seem as if it were pulsing, simulating the continuous compressions which keep blood pumping to the chest and heart. In essence, we turned a static post into a simplified CPR course using Instagram’s native functionality.

Social CPR is the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s most viral post.

The engagement behind this single organic Instagram post was 2.3 times more than the Heart and Stroke Foundation average, and 2.7 times more than Instagram’s average level of engagement. And we saw this engagement extend beyond Foundation followers – the spread rate was 5.26 times more than the Foundation’s average, making this single post the most viral the Heart and Stroke Foundation has ever seen.

With opportunities to promote the post and public relations still to come, we expect this viral record to hold.

HSF quotes “majority” of bystanders do not administer CPR

Source for 25% bystanders will jump in (as of 2011): http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/even-untrained-bystanders-should-perform-cpr-in-cardiac-arrest-cases-doctors-say/article557234/