Background
Parkinson Canada is the national voice of Canadian’s living with Parkinson’s disease. The organization guides the way for Canadians to live well with Parkinson’s disease through research, education, advocacy and support services. The Parkinson SuperWalk is the largest fundraising event for the organization. Close to 10,000 people from coast-to-coast organize and take part in the SuperWalk held on the first weekend after Labour Day.

Challenge
Like all Peer-to-Peer fundraising events, the challenge is to continuously attract new participants each year given high turnover rates and increased competition. Although SuperWalk has slightly higher than industry standard retention rates, it needs to reach a new group of high potential prospects – people who have proven that they care about the cause and those affected – on a modest marketing budget.

Solution
Starting in 2017, our solution was to invest fully in digital – the most cost-effective channel to reach this very small audience. (Only the 100,000 Canadian’s affected by Parkinson’s disease, their caregivers and inner circle of family and friends.) HALO recommended a blend of the most advanced online tactics on major social channels including database matching, connections, interests, Gmail, look-a-like and geo-targeting proximity to event locations. By hyper-targeting only those signaling that they are connected to the cause, prospects are reached at much lower costs resulting in lower cost per lead and cost per acquisition rates.

Creative Campaign
To support fundraising efforts in 2019, HALO created new video content that brought the brand strategy to life. The video entitled What Matters Most addresses common stereotypes and negative perceptions by demonstrating that people living with Parkinson disease define the human spirit of never giving up. They own their condition knowing that avoiding or denying it will never make it go away. They face their challenges head-on, emboldened and empowered by Parkinson Canada’s relentless drive to improve the quality of their life and the lives of their caregivers, providing personalized support and services and by investing in research that will lead to medical advancements in treatment and one day, a cure.               

Results
Despite heightened competitive pressures and a crowded Peer-to-Peer fundraising channel, the SuperWalk campaign exceeded all digital and financial objectives established for 2019 and grew revenue for Parkinson Canada for the third year in a row.