Objectives

Since 1992, RE/MAX Affiliates have raised millions of dollars to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals through the Miracle Home Program and fundraising events. Agents have shown that they’re always willing to support sick and injured kids in their time of need, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no different. The pandemic has presented several challenges for CMN Hospitals, including hospitals reporting they’ve lost an average of $67 million of revenue since the pandemic began (as of Q2 2020). RE/MAX saw an opportunity to help fill this critical funding gap while also increasing awareness of their charitable partnership. Although RE/MAX has been supporting CMN Hospitals for more than 28 years, there remains relatively low consumer awareness of the partnership.

The goal of the #MiracleMasks campaign was to build a connection with consumers by highlighting the ongoing support that RE/MAX agents provide kids at CMN Hospitals. The campaign would leverage social media voting to engage consumers and allow them to actively participate in the project. A fundraising component would help make up for the loss of funding experienced by children's hospitals since the pandemic began. 

While people are wearing masks to protect themselves and others against COVID-19, masks are commonplace for kids undergoing treatment in a hospital. RE/MAX Miracle Masks were created to protect those most vulnerable in the community. These masks stand out from other masks as they feature hand-drawn original artwork created by Children's Miracle Network Hospital Champions, as voted on by social media followers.

Strategy and Execution

The RE/MAX Social Media Team executed the campaign through four different launch periods in Q4 2020:

• The first primary asset was the Digital Art Kit in order to drive art submissions for the masks. The digital art kit was created in collaboration with Camp+King and was distributed to Miracle Kids (patients at CMN Hospitals) around the country. The digital art kit gave Miracle Kids the opportunity to mail in original artwork during a 2-week collection period for a chance to have their artwork voted on and created into one-of-a-kind masks. The campaign received 31 submissions from kids of all ages and backgrounds.
• The next part of the campaign was a week-long voting period on the @remax Instagram and We Are RE/MAX Facebook accounts. The voting period part of the campaign (strategically launched one-week ahead of the U.S. Presidential election) asked the followers to vote for their favorite mask designs created by patients and siblings at CMN Hospitals by “liking” the image of their favorite mask or by responding with an emoji 😷. The voting period was promoted using an animated video, Instagram stories, and a spot on Good Morning RE/MAX, the web series hosted by Nick Bailey, Chief Customer Officer for RE/MAX, resulting in 15,000 votes on social media.
• After the voting period and before the launch of sales, the RE/MAX Social Media Team identified key influencers to receive a produced Miracle Mask to market sales on their personal social media platforms. Influencers affiliated with RE/MAX and CMN Hospitals, including Marie Osmond, were sent masks and asked to share the campaign with their audiences using the #MiracleMasks hashtag. When sales officially launched, RE/MAX agents were quick to order and post photos of their masks on social media, creating additional user-generated-content and media coverage.
• The final aspect of the campaign was the launch of Miracle Mask sales to drive donations to CMN Hospitals. The top three winning designs were announced and put into production for families, friends, colleagues, and most importantly, kids. Mask sales launched on #GivingTuesday (December 1st) in partnership with RE/MAX Approved Supplier BlinkSwag with 50% of the purchase going back as a donation to the buyer's local CMN Hospitals. The RE/MAX Editorial Team also wrote profiles of the Miracle Children behind the designs. Creative posts reminding the audience to order their mask began in December and continued into the New Year. The RE/MAX Social Media Team plans to sell any remaining masks at their upcoming convention, RE/MAX R4 2021.

The collaboration between in-house RE/MAX LLC departments as well as Camp+King made this a uniquely well-executed campaign. By inviting consumers to actively participate in the campaign through voting and by leveraging the reach of key influencers, "Miracle Masks" successfully met the objective to increase consumer awareness of the RE/MAX + Children's Miracle Network partnership. By the end of the campaign, more than $17,000 had been raised for CMN Hospitals, fulfilling the campaign goal to help fill funding gaps created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results

Supporting statistics on the launch of the Miracle Masks campaign:

• Media Coverage: Mask artist Sophia Erikson was featured in a segment on prominent Chicago news station WGN and the campaign was covered widely in real estate trade publications. 

• Sales: Total masks sold to-date: 3,285 (1,095 packs) resulting in $17,175 raised for CMN Hospitals so far.

• Social Media: 324k reached, 401.1k impressions, 45.5k video views, and 25.5k engagements on 216 posts launched over Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn between October and December 2020.

• Influencer & UGC Posts: 48.5k reached and 6.3k engagements on 618 positive mentions of Miracle Masks over the campaign period.

Media