The St. Baldrick's Foundation, the world's largest volunteer-powered charity dedicated to raising money for lifesaving childhood cancer research, changes the narrative surrounding childhood cancers with multi-channel content campaign.

1. PR Newswire | St. Baldrick’s Foundation
Paolina Milana
St. Baldrick’s Foundation
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer

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The Foundation focuses on
celebrating kids and funding
research to give them the
happy childhoods
they deserve.
In 2016, we’ve already raised
$30 million!
Cheyenne, 2016 St. Baldrick’s Ambassador
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is the
world’s largest volunteer-powered
charity dedicated to raising money for
lifesaving childhood cancer research.

4. CHALLENGE
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Raising awareness with a new and compelling narrative:
amplifying our brand to reach new audiences who may
not even realize that kids get cancer, let alone that our
charity exists.

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Three Primary Goals
• Build brand awareness and be a voice of authority within the childhood
cancer community
• Raise awareness about childhood cancers and the need to find individualized
treatment
• Empower volunteers to organize head-shaving events or another project of
their own design in order to raise these funds that ultimately save lives.
Grace, 2014 St. Baldrick’s Ambassador

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St. Baldrick’s worked to craft content that tells a new and
compelling narrative around childhood cancers to help drive
awareness and action in their key donor and volunteer base.
“We realized that St. Baldrick’s brand identity differed from other
childhood cancer charities… While others own ‘fighting cancer,’
we set out to own ‘happy childhoods,’ delivering the message
that every child deserves a happy childhood free from cancer
and that with St. Baldrick’s, everyone can become a hero for kids
with cancer.”
- Paolina Milana
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
St. Baldrick’s Foundation

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APPROACH
Utilizing a multi-channel communication
strategy with a consistent and unique message

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Kids Are Special: Let’s Treat Them That Way
• New brand awareness campaign designed to attract an audience who had
little or no knowledge of St. Baldrick’s or childhood cancers in general.
• Created engaging informational content that aligned with the new narrative.
• Gave birth to chapters of a story that highlighted
all the funny, goofy, endearing things kids do that
make them special.

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“Creating engaging informational content that
aligned with the new narrative gave birth to
chapters of a story that highlighted all the funny,
goofy, endearing things kids do that make them
special.”
- Paolina Milana

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Utilizing a Multimedia News Release
• Branded landing page and content distribution solution.
• Showcased all the great visual assets created for the campaign to maximize
the impact of the “Kids Are Special” narrative.
https://www.youtube.com/user/officialstbaldricks

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“People don’t want to think of kids having cancer,
so by leveraging the Multimedia News Releases
platform with this unique approach, we created
campaigns where people would be encouraged to
engage, learn more and ultimately get involved or
contribute to the cause.”
- Traci Shirk
Director of Media and Storytelling
St. Baldrick’s Foundation

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Multimedia channels
• Paid advertising
• Social media
• Blog
• Media relations

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RESULTS
Reached new and existing audiences, increased
awareness and generated buzz.

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“By implementing the multi-channel communication
strategy along with the interactive Multimedia News
Releases, we were able to not only tap into an
audience that was already engaged with us, but
also reach an audience that wasn’t aware of us
before – which increased web traffic and increased
visibility of the St. Baldrick’s brand.”
- Traci Shirk

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Media Relations:
• Fox & Friends
• CNN Health – two placements
• Yahoo! Health
• TODAY – Ambush Makeover
• Everyday Health
• Huffington Post
Impression Numbers: 14.7% increase in year-over-year

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Increased web traffic and visibility of our brand:
• Over 240 websites posting the campaign content
• Potential audience of more than 169 million
• Nearly 13,000 image views and downloads
• In the 99th percentile for engagement – outperforming releases on similar
topics within the industry
• Web traffic increased in select target markets

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FUTURE PLANS
Constant cadence of promotion for the “Kids Are Special”
narrative and building upon
brand awareness initiative evolution

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Nurturing the Audience
• Utilize similar multichannel integrated strategies to further drive the message.
• Approaching the next phase, will continue telling the story centered targeted
at Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September.
• Integrating new language and visuals across various channels (i.e.
website and media)
• Engage and create larger campaigns that align to partner brands.

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“Our focus for the remainder of the year is really
going to be on our volunteers – encouraging,
inspiring and empowering them – while also
providing tips on how to fundraise and increase
involvement in various events.”
- Traci Shirk

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

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1. Differentiate: Take the time to figure out what makes you unique. What’s
the story that makes you stand out?
2. Target Your Audience: Make sure you speak to the masses who don’t
know you in one way versus to your local followers.
3. Create a Content Strategy: Make sure it supports your story; chapter by
chapter.
4. Broadcast and Amplify: Utilize multi-channel, multi-media way that
engages and encourages action.
Cheyenne Isaac Alyssa Phineas Holden

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Inspired to work with St. Baldrick’s?
Email us at corporate.sponsorship@stbaldricks.org
Check us out on social! #StBaldricks