In 2011, the Heart & Stroke Foundation used hard facts to strike fear into boomers and raise awareness of an issue that takes the lives of 1 in 3 Canadians. In 2012, we began phase 2 of a multi-year strategy, empowering Canadians to turn this knowledge into action. We used traditional and non-traditional media to drive people to MakeHealthLast.ca where they were empowered to change their future and make health last.

After successfully waking Canadians up to the realities of heart disease and stroke with our Make Death Wait campaign, we now had to take it a step further. We needed to motivate them and provide them with the tools to do something about it. 80% of heart disease and stroke is preventable and even making small changes to your health behaviours can drastically reduce the likelihood of suffering an array of related illnesses.

Knowing that our target is bombarded with health messages daily, how could we grab their attention once again, and inspire them to start making changes to their health behaviour?

Because health is a very personal issue, we needed an experience that would be unique to each individual who uses it. Once a user completes a simple risk assessment, the dynamic, modular site changes right before their eyes, providing unique and personalized solutions, tips, goals, and graphics based on their individual results. Users could then compare their risks to other Canadians, set goals at their own pace, and record a video time capsule as a promise to their future self. They could also download personalized infographics and even sign-up for tailored email streams, bringing the website right to their inbox.

After only four weeks, MakeHealthLast.ca delivered some great results with 144,000 visits to the microsite, and 33,600 risk assessment completions. These numbers are still in tracking as they continue to grow every day.