Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Campaign

  • Brand Strategy
  • Brand Narrative Development
  • Digital Strategy
  • Creative Direction
  • Concept Development
  • Design
  • Copywriting
  • Photography
  • Film Concept Development
  • Film Production

Opportunity

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is leading the way nationally with research, technology and innovation. The only problem was no one knew about it. We were asked to create a bold campaign that would put them on the map across Michigan and position them as a place of innovation.

Approach

Working closely with hospital leaders, we discovered a passionate team curing unknown diseases, inventing unbelievable technology, and performing unheard-of procedures. Then we met the toughest kids around. And we realized, sickness is not weakness. This was a team doing impossible things inspired by children overcoming impossible odds.

Through photography and film, across digital and print, we created a platform for doctors, nurses, parents and their kids to show everyone: it’s only impossible, until it isn’t.

Result

This is the hospital’s most influential campaign to date. In the first four weeks, it generated nearly 11 million impressions and increased website engagement by more than 50%. It’s recruited new partners for the hospital, attracted new donors for the foundation, and even made a few hospital employees cry tears of joy.

This campaign has been more successful than we could have ever imagined. We are seeing and feeling the benefits.

— Hossain Marandi, MD MBA FACHE

President and Department Chief, Spectrum Health, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital

Meet Jazir, Age 10

New kidney, new life. Kidney failure since birth, Jazir had his first kidney removed at 2, and his second kidney removed at 5. For months he wondered if a new kidney would ever come … and then it did. Now he’s the boy he was born to be.

Meet Queen, Age 11

Fighting cancer and winning. After a bone marrow examination revealed leukemia, further testing showed a rare and more dangerous form. But Queen never quit. She endured aggressive chemotherapy, and now her cancer is in remission.

Meet Lily, Age 10

Two years seizure free. When medication failed to control Lily’s seizures, doctors performed a rare brain surgery. Over two years later, Lily is still seizure free, and back to being her sassy self.

This is the work I dreamed of doing when I came here.

— Jeremy Harper

Chief Marketing and Consumer Experience Officer, Spectrum Health