In honor of the powerful true story ORDINARY ANGELS coming to theaters February 23, 2024, Kingdom Story Company entered into a partnership with RIP Medical Debt (now Undue Medical Debt) for a debt elimination campaign. This nonprofit purchases debt in bundles, millions of dollars at a time at a fraction of the cost. The result is that every dollar donated eliminates $100 in debt.
Based on the incredible true story, ORDINARY ANGELS centers on Sharon (Hilary Swank), a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed (Alan Ritchson), a widower working hard to make ends meet for his two daughters. With his youngest daughter waiting for a liver transplant, Sharon sets her mind to helping the family and will move mountains to do it: including having his medical bills erased.
The marketing team and filmmakers believed it was important to model the social impact shown in the film through the messaging and marketing of the movie. The gift of debt relief is life-changing—and every dollar makes a difference.
Over 100 million people in the U.S. struggle under the weight of medical debt, together owing at least $195 billion in past-due medical expenses. The debt crisis is staggering: and people often don’t know how to help. Our partnership with RIP allowed us to make a tangible, measurable difference in the lives of real people, providing a way to maximize the impact of even a single dollar. Our campaign-long partnership included press opportunities with talent, joint statements with Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company, and a full-scale social media campaign driving traffic to the fundraising page. Our messaging emphasized the reality of medical debt and the broken healthcare system, as well as the hope ordinary people can provide through even a small donation. We leveraged film clips, shout-outs from the actors about the partnership, and visuals that demonstrated the life-changing impact of having debt wiped clean. It was important to us that our audience saw the film ORDINARY ANGELS as an inherent call to action: go forth and do likewise.
This partnership was the most significant social-impact campaign in Kingdom Story Company history, resulting in the elimination of $2.6 million in medical debt, with another $25,000 (erasing a further $2.5 million) pledged from iHeartRadio to the campaign. The ORDINARY ANGELS debt relief campaign received national news coverage from premier outlets, including The Kelly Clarkson Show. People across the country received letters that their debt had been erased by an Ordinary Angel from this campaign. They have no tax consequences or penalties to consider. Just like that, they’re free of medical debt.
What this demonstrated to our team was the value of a fully-integrated social impact campaign that was central to the grassroots marketing and messaging. Some of the highest engagement we saw on socials surrounding ORDINARY ANGELS was centered around the debt relief campaign. Executing a partnership between a film campaign and nonprofit meant that the impact of the story went beyond the box office, resulting in life-changing news for ordinary Americans.
