Campaign details
Brand: The Terry Fox Run
Brand owner: The Terry Fox Foundation
Lead agency: Grip Limited
Country: Canada
Industries: Charities & voluntary organisations
Media channels: Online video, Outdoor, out-of-home, Radio & audio, Social media, Television
Budget: No budget
Executive summary
Zero dollars in media budget. Millions of people reached. Millions of dollars raised.
The Millions of Followers campaign re-inspired Canadians with a decades-old legacy by taking the modern-day prevalence of social media and strategically subverting it. Terry Fox had 0 likes, 0 posts, 0 shares – but millions of followers.
Terry began his Marathon of Hope in 1980, running a marathon a day for 143 days on a prosthetic leg to raise money for cancer research. Tragically, the cancer returned before he was able to complete his cross-country journey. That the Marathon of Hope was unfinished doesn’t detract from his legacy; in true Canadian fashion, he’s regarded as a national hero who has inspired millions. Today, his eponymous foundation hosts annual Terry Fox Runs across the country and around the world. But, by 2017, both annual donations and awareness were decreasing.