Analyzing search data, the most searched question stood out after the birth of a baby with Down syndrome: “what do you say to parents who just had a child with Down syndrome?”.

To answer family and friends, we used AdWords to intercept their searches with a video, the “S-Word”, letting them know that you can say just about anything except the worst word of all, the “S Word”. The video featured people with Down syndrome offering humorously inappropriate suggestions to welcome a baby with Down syndrome – to point out that the truly inappropriate word is “Sorry”.

Then we hijacked the word “sorry” with the first ever language warning ads. Intercepting the top-30 YouTube videos containing the word sorry, we ran pre-roll ‘S-Warnings’ - featuring our Down syndrome advocates warning viewers of the ‘inappropriate’ language they were about to hear.

Data was integral to all aspects of Anything But Sorry.

First, search data was used to identify a need for education, since family and friends were searching “what do you say to parents who just had a child with Down syndrome?” Search data and AdWords were then used to intercept those searches with our video, the “S-Word”. And organic SEO ensured the video will continue to intercept future searches.

We then used data-driven targeting to reinforce our message and give it added impact, pin-pointing contextually relevant content, including YouTube videos and websites, that contained the word sorry. We hijacked these videos and websites with “S-warnings” to surprise viewers with a warning that the content they were about to consume contained an inappropriate word, “Sorry”. Data-driven media targeting enhanced the breakthrough power of our message, so we could provoke the public to engage with a topic that wasn’t top of mind.

To date, Anything But Sorry achieved the following:

Driving mass awareness:

- Earned 1.3 billion impressions from 106 pieces of international coverage including Huffington Post, Today’s Parent, and all of Canada’s major news outlets.

- 365,000 total video views on social media, with just $1,200 CAD spent on Facebook.

Driving engagement:

- 64,000 social shares including e-cards shares from microsite, video shares and news story shares.

- 350% increase in requests for educational and support material.

Changing attitudes and behaviour:

- In quantitative research, 77.25% of respondents said that the video changed their perceptions of people with Down syndrome and 87% agreed they would not say “sorry” to parents of a Down syndrome baby.1

- The campaign drove a 330% increase in donations to the CDSS.

- The most incredible result was that the S-Word became an inspirational tool for a couple to announce their baby had Down syndrome.

1Toluna Analytics

Anything But Sorry is a data-driven campaign that changed how people react to the birth of a baby with Down syndrome, from sorry to congratulations. Using search data, we intercepted family and friends when they were searching this very question with a humour-filled video, the “S Word”, that shows why sorry can be a bad word. But for people not searching for answers to this question, we provoked them to consider how they should react. Using YouTube data, we hijacked the top 30 videos with the word sorry and intercepted viewers with “S warnings” that warned “inappropriate language” to come.

We knew friends and family were searching how to react to a Down syndrome birth, so we used AdWords to intercept their question with the S-Word. Tagging and content quality allowed us to build up organic SEO, making the S-Word the top search result. Allowing us to answer people searching for the right words to say, today and tomorrow.

But many people don’t ever consider how they should react. So, we needed to provoke them to realize you shouldn’t say sorry. Using YouTube data, we intercepted contextually relevant videos containing the word sorry in completely unrelated contexts to dramatize that sorry can be a bad word. We hijacked these videos with pre-roll and bumpers to make our message impossible to ignore.

We also ran digital display “S-Warnings” on sites that featured sorry in other unexpected instances, like dictionary.com, turning a media that’s often ignored into an intrusive, attention-grabbing tactic.

When a baby with Down syndrome is born, often the first words parents hear are “I’m sorry”. A hurtful, judgement-laden comment that implies babies with Down syndrome should be pitied instead of celebrated. In an instant, a seemingly small comment turns what should be the happiest moment in a parent’s life into one of the saddest.

The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) had a mission: stop people from saying I’m sorry when reacting to the birth of a baby with Down syndrome so no new parent has to hear those words again. In fact, these babies are deserving of the same welcome and celebration as any other newborn.

Given Down syndrome is a rare condition, we knew our issue wouldn’t be top of mind for the general public. So, we had to find a way to provoke and engage people with our message before greeting a baby with Down syndrome.