Cultivating a transformative
global brand with big impact.
Groundbreaking nonprofit
brand + creative strategy
takes cultivation.
What was it like to guide the creative of a beloved non-profit? Inspiring.
Then re-build its brand approach? Transformational.
And the key to success? Cultivation.
“Oh, I looooove Make-A-Wish!”
It was the always-uttered phrase that warmed hearts and challenged the brand, because wishes aren’t just a nice moment in time, they’re a necessary part of a child’s treatment journey.
As she led the creative team, Adele was focused on a big challenge: How do we prove the life-changing impact of hope for children with critical illnesses? Cracking that code was her all-consuming journey of reimagining the brand strategy, redesigning visuals, overhauling messaging, exploring new approaches, examining data, exploring co-branded collaborations, challenging the status quo and bringing everyone along for the ride: leadership, staff, chapters, donors, sponsors, volunteers and – most important of all – wish kids and families. Phew!
Leading through passion and inspiration, while transforming creative operations made it all possible. She ensured Make-A-Wish has a solid foundation to build a promising future ahead.
Spark imagination.
Building a fresh brand is not for the faint of heart – especially when it’s a highly visible one that has a devoted fan base. When Adele joined Make-A-Wish in 2016, she was tapped to lead the brand and creative strategy for this complex global organization. In collaboration with strategic agency partners, dedicated in-house collaborators and lots of input, she reimagined everything, creating a new brand strategy complete with fresh logo, visuals and messaging. In 2020, she also led the visual approach for the redesign of the Make-A-Wish America website.
Years later, this strategy continues to guide the brand approach. It’s been tested in everything from multimillion-dollar fundraising proposals, to international brand and partner campaigns.
Building campaigns with impact.
-
40th Anniversary
In 1980, Make-A-Wish started with one boy’s wish, and turned into a beloved worldwide movement. To recognize this important milestone, Adele partnered with TBWA\Chiat\Day to build a creative approach that celebrated those who made 500,000 wishes possible, and reminded the world that more wishes are waiting. From filming a PSA, to creating a merchandise strategy, and dreaming up new partner activations (including Disney), we had big, big plans. Some came to fruition, and some encountered “The COVID effect.”
-
Messages of Hope
One month before the 40th Anniversary campaign launch, COVID exploded. Our world was shaken, upending our campaign plans, as well as our ability to grant wishes. After a sleepless night, Adele envisioned a campaign where messages of encouragement would be created and shared to wish kids in a time of new uncertainty. We launched in 72 hours. Ryan Reynolds provided the first video, then thousands more were shared. In a time of challenge, Adele rebuilt the messaging approach, reminding the world that hope is essential.
-
World Wish Day 2019
To celebrate the anniversary of the first wish granted, Make-A-Wish honors World Wish Day every April 29th. In 2019, we built a strategy that emphasized the transformational power of a wish, and how it helps children fight – and even recover from – their illness. Leveraging the inspirational stories of real wish kids, we also demonstrated the reality of their urgent need for hope. Adele collaborated with TBWA\Chiat\Day to build a campaign that moved beyond awareness, to brand consideration – and donations.
-
World Wish Day 2018
For years, Make-A-Wish celebrated World Wish Day all-too-quietly. But 2018 was the year to build a bolder strategy that leaned into a direct donation ask. Together with WWE and champion wish-granter John Cena, we created a campaign platform that leaned into misconceptions about our funding, and emphasized the critical need to fund wishes. Bringing the creative to life took … well … muscle. And working with John Cena on set was a delight. Who can beat talent that nails it on the first take?
Elevating partnership opportunities.
-
Macy's Believe Campaign
For years, Macy’s was the second-largest corporate sponsor of Make-A-Wish, and had donated over $137MM to the mission. Since 2003, the Macy’s Believe campaign has been a demonstration of strong brand value alignment, and impacted more than 3.2 million people. While creatively guiding this campaign for six holiday seasons, Adele focused on leveraging the power of believing to increase engagement and revenue, bringing more hope to wish kids, families, volunteers and communities around the country.
-
Disney Share Your Ears
What is more iconic than a pair of Mickey ears? And as the number one corporate sponsor of Make-A-Wish, and our #1 wish granter, Make-A-Wish partnered with Disney on countless opportunities to build campaigns with mutual impact. The Share Your Ears campaign leveraged an iconic brand visual, the love for a mission, and smart social strategy to unlock $5 million in donations to Make-A-Wish and 420 million social media impressions.
-
Keebler Magic
Uncovering this partnership opportunity took more than the work of Ernie the Elf. It took smart, but magical thinking to find a fresh, aligned way to maximize this CPG opportunity. Working closely with Keebler’s agency to infuse whimsey into our storytelling was an adventure that led to over $400,000 in donations. More than just putting the Make-A-Wish logo and donation language on their packaging, Keebler and Make-A-Wish built an immersive digital and social experience using one of Adele’s favorite visual devices: animation.
Telling stories of hope and transformation.
-
Wishes are Waiting
Traditionally, Make-A-Wish has focused on wish-granting moments of joy. However, we also had to demonstrate organizational need to our audiences. This video was a result of finding wish kids who were waiting for their wish, traveling around the country, and capturing their stories with Adele’s trusted videographer and photographer. These assets changed the course of the organization’s storytelling strategy, opening the doors to ongoing refinements to the strategy.
-
Create Hope
How do strengthen brand consideration? By demonstrating the need for wishes. For World Wish Day 2021, Adele led the creative and storytelling strategy, and spent time building the story of two wish kids waiting for their wish. In order to elevate brand urgency, we featured Kylie and Madeline, whose courageous stories showed the anticipation of their wish-come-true, while empowering the audience to create hope through financial support.
-
Dom + JetBlue
Before Make-A-Wish rolled out their big brand refresh, Adele worked with corporate airline partner JetBlue to tell the story of Dominic, who wished to go to Atlantis. While traveling to the Bahamas is not the worst assignment in the world, it was a powerful way to learn Dom’s story of battling cancer, and the hope a wish can bring. This video informed the storytelling strategy for many future corporate sponsorship wish videos. Even better, Dom remains cancer-free.