2018 Bateman Case Study Competition
Project role: graphic designer
September 2017 - March 2018
In 2018, the PRSSA partnered with the non-profit organization, With Purpose. The organization's main focus is to increase the number and availability of pediatric cancer treatments through increased research funding, accomplished by educating the public about the various pediatric cancers afflicting children and the lack of available treatment options. Representing just 4% of the National Cancer Institute's budget, pediatric cancer research remains woefully underfunded.
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With Purpose asked college students to create a campaign for fellow college students, to heed the call and make a difference. Although college students may not be the best-positioned audience to target due to their lack of disposable income, which means they can't donate to research efforts and they are occupied by class and work so they do not have disposable time to give to volunteer. Despite these challenges, we were fortunate to focus on students at DePaul University because they are different: they want to give back to their community in order to fulfill their Vincentian mission.
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Since DePaul University holds Vincentian values at its core, asking students to do what must be done to help others, we knew how to speak to our audience. We answered the call to encourage students to advocate and create a sense of urgency around the issue by tapping into their sense of purpose. Two challenges lay ahead of us: first, the challenge of relating pediatric cancer to college students who are likely unfamiliar with the associated difficulties or don't have any first-hand experience with the subject, and second, encouraging college students to participate in our campaign.
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Our strategy was to rely on social media for the following reasons: the ease of spreading information, the ability to use visuals to add interest to the content and to be able to interact with our audience. Shareable facts and information about pediatric cancer were created to spread awareness and increase the reach of our social media campaign. Yet, something more was needed. On its own social media wasn't going to cut it. This is when we came up with the idea of tapping into college students' superpowers: using their time, resources and vast social networks to advocate for safe treatment options for pediatric cancer.
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The cornerstone of our campaign was transforming college students into Superheroes for the cause. We brought the campaign to them and they participated in campus-wide events were held. Fourteen of our peers were selected as brand ambassadors and increased the reach of our message by spreading information during the course of the campaign, and shared videos about why they advocate for pediatric cancer to encourage other students to join the cause.
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As the head of design for the campaign, I was tasked with creating original graphics and attention-grabbing captions to boost engagement and reach for social media posts. I became well-versed at using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Since multimedia is my specialty, I was also in charge of editing videos of our Superhero ambassadors discussing why they advocate for pediatric cancer.
Instagram Graphics
The campaign, With Purpose Comes Power, lived on social media platforms. Recognizing the power of word-of-mouth advertising, I set out to create attention-grabbing graphics that inspired people to engage, follow and continue spreading the campaign's message. Although Facebook allowed us to elaborate on specific issues without the use of an image, Instagram became our focal point. Each post was shared on Facebook, though, to integrate both platforms and encourage our audience members to follow us on both outlets.
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To achieve a sense of unity I set out to incorporate at least two of the logo's three colors in each of the graphics.
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Given the relatively unknown and unrelatable issue of pediatric cancer to our target audience of college-aged students, calls to action were also included in some of the graphics to grab their attention without relying on them to read the whole post. This is exemplified in the Hero Highlight tiles which asked our audience members to answer questions that would inspire them to join our cause and advocate for pediatric cancer and treatment options.
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Since the notion of being a Superhero was at the forefront of our campaign, we included elements associated with Superheroes in as many graphics as possible. This includes the hero mask and the cape graphic, and phrases like "save the day," "super," and "hero" were used to reinforce the message.
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Click each image to learn more.
Instagram Graphics with Copy
Click through to read the copy of the social media posts.
Superhero Highlight Videos
Since the concept of Superheroes was central to the campaign, we recruited eight individuals to be "Superheroes", or brand ambassadors in the traditional sense. Below are their profiles and the copy that accompanied each profile. We decided to also create videos as a means of providing a multimedia experience to understand why Superheroes advocate for pediatric cancer. Furthermore, these videos were a means to convince other college-aged students to advocate for pediatric cancer patients and the future of their treatment options.
Superhero Profiles
Prior to the start of the campaign, we recruited eight of our peers who would be Superheroes advocating for pediatric cancers. I photoshopped images of the hero's choosing to include a frame with the colors of the brand, a superhero mask over their eyes, their names, and our campaign name.
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During the campaign, the eight Superheroes changed their profile pictures on Facebook and Instagram to these edited images. This served to reinforce the campaign and provided an endorsement to potential audience members to join the cause. Our campaign was able to spread organically thanks to the work and dedication of our Superheroes to the cause. We gathered support from each of their individual networks, which spanned beyond just those on the core team. In essence, our Superheroes became extensions of us, our campaign, and our message.
Superhero Profiles with Copy
Each Superhero Profile picture I posted to Instagram and Facebook was accompanied by a sentiment from each hero. Here are two featured posts, one from Alex Goodman and the other from Levi Jacobson.
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Click each image to learn more.
Other Graphics
These graphic are uncategorized and were used throughout the campaign. Click each to learn more.
