This campaign is a dynamic approach to fundraising. The MIRA Foundation trains seeing eyes dogs to assist the blind, and depends solely on the awareness and support of the community.

To stand out amongst fundraising saturation and consumer fatigue, we created a humorous approach that resonates with Quebecers through relevance and cultural nostalgia.

It features ordinary dogs with the headline, “I always wanted to be a guide dog.” Humour is juxtaposed with facts: it takes 2 years and $20,000 to train a guide dog. Together these two elements communicates the key message: Guide dogs are made, not born.

The first phase of the campaign was launched at the 2006 fundraising event, followed by newspapers ads, posters, USB keychains, and web banners on popular sites.

All drove to the microsite where people could upload videos and photos of their dogs or buy virtual biscuits for their favourites.

The second phase featured the content submitted to the website. Video commercials were aired on television stations and in theatres, featuring the funniest dogs submitted. These were complimented with radio and posters.Finally, we arranged to have Tête-a-Claques, the ultra-popular Quebec website, create a related emission just for MIRA’s 2007 Event.

Phase one raised $50,000, and the website raised another $5,000, a success for MIRA. The 2007 launch event, that marks the culmination of all campaign phases, raised $800,000, a remarkable achievement.The campaign did even more to build awareness, putting MIRA top of mind with a relevant message that uses cultural nostalgia to resonate with its target group.