2022 Winner
PUBLIC SERVICE JURY PRIZE DEI
GoldBest Data Insight
Canadian Down Syndrome Society
"The Mindsets Paper "
FCB
"The Mindsets Paper "
FCB
The culture of fitness has taught us we can do anything, but people with Down syndrome are told the exact opposite. Fitness isn’t something we encourage or emphasize for the Down syndrome community, because we underestimate what we think they can accomplish.
Athletes with Down syndrome have shown that fitness has the power to not only strengthen the body, but also the mind. For example, Down syndrome athletes like Ironman Chris Nikic, have observed strengthened memory, enhanced learning, boosted social skills, and increased confidence – all of which allow for a more independent lifestyle. This linkage could be very meaningful for the community, because even a slight increase in cognition can lead to an incredible shift in quality of life.
Fitness holds the power to improve cognition for people with Down syndrome, but it’s never been proven, so it recruited 200 people with Down syndrome to do just that. Introducing The Mindsets Paper, an eight-week, evidence-based, globally unprecedented study to definitively prove the link between fitness and cognition for the Down syndrome community.
The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS)’s objective was to prove the importance of fitness for people within the Down syndrome community, so it can become widely encouraged by doctors, parents, and society at large.
On behalf of CDSS, the agency co-ordinated a global research study to prove the link between
fitness and cognition for the Down syndrome community.
To recruit this niche audience with only $5000 in media, it deployed specific creative and media strategies. It targeted the tight knit Down syndrome community organically, knowing the more they engaged, the more the video would be seen by this niche audience.
It launched a social video showcasing the barriers people with Down syndrome experience when it comes to fitness and encouraging recruitment for the study. It then reached out to over 50 influencers in the Down syndrome community, including content creators, parents, and other key advocacy groups, asking them to share their campaign.
As the leading global voice for the Down syndrome community, CDSS harnessed its network of
community groups around the world via email outreach, ultimately driving the campaign to its social media content. Engagement from these groups resulted in global impressions and reach.
The Mindsets Paper was facilitated by Dr. Dan Gordon, Paralympian, and Associate Professor in Cardiorespiratory Exercise Physiology at Anglia Ruskin University. Dr. Gordon is an expert in the assessment of endurance physiology and the impact of training and pathologies, with an interest in disability sport.
It then recruited Dr. Henry Mahncke and his team of neurological scientists at BrainHQ to select the appropriate brain training games for the Down syndrome community. Consulting with Dr. Gordon and his research team, they evaluated all 29 BrainHQ games across a number of criteria. Firstly, games were selected based on the overall difficulty of the instruction videos provided by BrainHQ. Following a pilot test, they created three lists, categorized based on the specific needs of the participants (hearing impaired, visual impaired, and general). 19 games were then selected for the study and ranked based on level of entertainment and ease of access. The overall difficulty of each game was linked to the participants’ category and impairment suitability.
They then custom-built The Mindsets App to track the cognitive data from the participants’ BrainHQ exercises and their exercise data from Fitbit. By joining the back end of the two apps, Dr. Gordon’s team at ARU could pull the anonymized data from the cloud for analysis. The Mindsets App was enabled with one-to-one communication so the research team could facilitate app set-up, monitor activity, and with a series of coaching videos, featuring world-famous Down syndrome athlete Chris Nikic, encourage participants throughout the study.
Both The Mindsets Paper and The Mindsets App are unprecedented. A study of this size has never been conducted for the Down syndrome community and the app is the first to join cognition and fitness apps together. The data will be used to measure the precise impact exercise has on cognition over time, and lead to fitness being universally recognized as a necessary tool for helping individuals with Down syndrome live their best lives.
The Mindsets Paper has already achieved global reach. ROI is incalculable, but on a cost per impression basis, 36,000 impressions per dollar spent isn’t bad. Results based on the campaign objectives prove the importance of fitness through research and data. It included two hundred participants who were recruited - achieving their goal of becoming the first-ever, statistically significant study on exercise and cognition within the Down syndrome community. Participants were included from four continents around the world. The campaign drove awareness of the importance of fitness with only $5000 in media and earned 180M media impressions and 600,000 video views, tripling the objective.
Athletes with Down syndrome have shown that fitness has the power to not only strengthen the body, but also the mind. For example, Down syndrome athletes like Ironman Chris Nikic, have observed strengthened memory, enhanced learning, boosted social skills, and increased confidence – all of which allow for a more independent lifestyle. This linkage could be very meaningful for the community, because even a slight increase in cognition can lead to an incredible shift in quality of life.
Fitness holds the power to improve cognition for people with Down syndrome, but it’s never been proven, so it recruited 200 people with Down syndrome to do just that. Introducing The Mindsets Paper, an eight-week, evidence-based, globally unprecedented study to definitively prove the link between fitness and cognition for the Down syndrome community.
The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS)’s objective was to prove the importance of fitness for people within the Down syndrome community, so it can become widely encouraged by doctors, parents, and society at large.
On behalf of CDSS, the agency co-ordinated a global research study to prove the link between
fitness and cognition for the Down syndrome community.
To recruit this niche audience with only $5000 in media, it deployed specific creative and media strategies. It targeted the tight knit Down syndrome community organically, knowing the more they engaged, the more the video would be seen by this niche audience.
It launched a social video showcasing the barriers people with Down syndrome experience when it comes to fitness and encouraging recruitment for the study. It then reached out to over 50 influencers in the Down syndrome community, including content creators, parents, and other key advocacy groups, asking them to share their campaign.
As the leading global voice for the Down syndrome community, CDSS harnessed its network of
community groups around the world via email outreach, ultimately driving the campaign to its social media content. Engagement from these groups resulted in global impressions and reach.
The Mindsets Paper was facilitated by Dr. Dan Gordon, Paralympian, and Associate Professor in Cardiorespiratory Exercise Physiology at Anglia Ruskin University. Dr. Gordon is an expert in the assessment of endurance physiology and the impact of training and pathologies, with an interest in disability sport.
It then recruited Dr. Henry Mahncke and his team of neurological scientists at BrainHQ to select the appropriate brain training games for the Down syndrome community. Consulting with Dr. Gordon and his research team, they evaluated all 29 BrainHQ games across a number of criteria. Firstly, games were selected based on the overall difficulty of the instruction videos provided by BrainHQ. Following a pilot test, they created three lists, categorized based on the specific needs of the participants (hearing impaired, visual impaired, and general). 19 games were then selected for the study and ranked based on level of entertainment and ease of access. The overall difficulty of each game was linked to the participants’ category and impairment suitability.
They then custom-built The Mindsets App to track the cognitive data from the participants’ BrainHQ exercises and their exercise data from Fitbit. By joining the back end of the two apps, Dr. Gordon’s team at ARU could pull the anonymized data from the cloud for analysis. The Mindsets App was enabled with one-to-one communication so the research team could facilitate app set-up, monitor activity, and with a series of coaching videos, featuring world-famous Down syndrome athlete Chris Nikic, encourage participants throughout the study.
Both The Mindsets Paper and The Mindsets App are unprecedented. A study of this size has never been conducted for the Down syndrome community and the app is the first to join cognition and fitness apps together. The data will be used to measure the precise impact exercise has on cognition over time, and lead to fitness being universally recognized as a necessary tool for helping individuals with Down syndrome live their best lives.
The Mindsets Paper has already achieved global reach. ROI is incalculable, but on a cost per impression basis, 36,000 impressions per dollar spent isn’t bad. Results based on the campaign objectives prove the importance of fitness through research and data. It included two hundred participants who were recruited - achieving their goal of becoming the first-ever, statistically significant study on exercise and cognition within the Down syndrome community. Participants were included from four continents around the world. The campaign drove awareness of the importance of fitness with only $5000 in media and earned 180M media impressions and 600,000 video views, tripling the objective.
Credits
Client: Canadian Down Syndrome SocietyChair: Ed Casagrande
Interim Executive Director: Laura LaChance
Marketing & Communications Manager: Kristen Halpen
Board Member: Ben Tarr
Creative Agency: FCB Canada
Chief Creative Officers: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna, Jeff Hilts
Global Creative Partner: Danilo Boer
Executive Creative Director: Andrew MacPhee
Associate Creative Director: Michael Morelli
Associate Creative Director: Marty Hoefkes
Copywriter: Jon Dawe
Art Director: Jerry Yang
Chief Strategy Officer: Shelley Brown
Director of Strategy: Eryn LeMesurier
Strategy Coordinator: Audrey Zink
VP, Managing Director: Tim Welsh
Group Account Director: Blake Connolly
Account Supervisor: Ilaria Ragno
Agency Producer: Adriana Laborde
Project Manager: Cori Pettit
Production Artist: Douglas Hayter
Senior Production Artist: Jesse Reid-Smith
Proofreader: Jayne Heaton
Production Artist: Dominic Pimpare
Partners:
Research Chair, Associate Professor: Dan Gordan
Research Assistant: Vivian Merzbach
Posit science/BrainHQ:
Co-Founder: Jeff Zimman
CEO: Dr. Henry Mahncke
Mouna Attarha
PR: Glossy
Shannon Stephaniuk
Production Company: Fuelcontent
Director: Scott Drucker
Director of Photography: Scott Drucker
Camera Operator: Scott Drucker & Chet Tilokani
Photographer: Chet Tilokani
Editing House: Radar
Editor: Jon Garofalo
Audio House: Grayson Music Group
Audio Producer: Kelly McCluskey
Director: Mark Domitric
Engineer: Brian Bernard
Music Supervisor: Rich Hamilton
App design: Bliss Interactive
Thomas Colliers
Head of Project Management: Joni Allert