What happens when a golf legend decides to pledge $60 million to South Florida’s leading children’s hospital? An unprecedented partnership.
In March, golfing legend Jack Nicklaus — the “Golden Bear” — and his wife Barbara made a $60 million pledge through their Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation to the Miami Children’s Health System. In recognition, the system’s flagship hospital changed its name to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, and its eight outpatient centers in South Florida took the Nicklaus name as well.
The move presented a few challenges for the Miami Children’s Health System, and the RockOrange team worked closely with our client, Miami Children’s Health Foundation, the system, and the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation to create an integrated communications plan. The plan included the announcement of the amazing pledge and the new hospital name, in addition to the unveiling of the new logo. As if this wasn’t enough, we also planned the official kick-off event for the Together for the Children Campaign, the fundraising campaign for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
As we tackled the various communications challenges at hand, we had to stay focused on our ultimate goal: to position the hospital and the Miami Children’s Health System as the ultimate global destination for pediatric care. Part of the challenge was to educate consumers and internal audiences, letting them know that the Nicklaus family wasn’t just pledging funds to the system. The “first family of golf” has been an integral part of the Miami Children’s family since 2010, when they joined the hospital for the creation of the Miami Children’s Hospital Nicklaus Care Center in western Palm Beach County.
It was also key to communicate that only the hospital and its outpatient centers would take the new name. Both the Miami Children’s Health System — as well as its fundraising arm, the Miami Children’s Health Foundation — would keep their name.
Once the new name was announced, we worked with the foundation to reveal that Jack and Barbara Nicklaus had become the chairs of Together For the Children Campaign, and would lead fundraising efforts with a goal to fundraise $150 million dollars through 2017. This announcement was crucial, as it proved that they were committed to the partnership for the long run.
The next move on the game plan included the unveiling of the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital logo in a press conference, just in time for the hospital’s 65th anniversary. It was followed by a VIP donor luncheon to officially kickoff the Together for the Children campaign.
At the same time, the campaign’s celebrity ambassadors were activated through social media. This included pop artist Romero Britto, “El Gordo y la Flaca’s” Raul de Molina and supermodel Nina Agdal. Social media activation of these high-profile individuals, coupled with traditional long- and short-lead media outreach, allowed us to generate media buzz and each served as a catalyst in informing our global community about the positive impacts of the new name and logo.
RockOrange, along with the Miami Children’s Health System team, secured coverage on top-tier media like CBS Miami, NBC 6, WPLG 10, El Nuevo Herald, South Florida Business Journal, CNN, Palm Beach Post, Univision, Telemundo, ESPN and many more.
With exposure in over 130 media outlets, we created over 150 million media impressions, delivering solid results for our client!
