Rotary International End Polio Now

The Challenge

After 30 years, Rotary International, whose goal is to provide humanitarian aid around the world, noticed fatigue among its member and donor base. At the time, the Rotary Foundation’s previous work and public health campaigns had already helped to eradicate polio in all but four countries: Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. Still, there was more work to be done. They decided to re-energize their audience with a new public health campaign, End Polio Now, that would underscore the progress made by the organization while centering Rotary International’s ongoing work. The campaign would span five years, targeting three key goals: generate awareness of the End Polio Now initiative, increase engagement among Rotary International donors, and raise funds to end polio.

Given the global nature of the public health campaign and Rotary’s need to raise awareness and interest among a broad audience, the team reached out to Entertain Impact for marketing support.

Our Solution

Entertain Impact launched a multi-tiered global influencer marketing campaign for Rotary International.

Given the breadth of the End Polio Now public health campaign and Rotary International’s intention to maintain it over a five-year period, we made upfront investments in creating visual and video content that the Rotary Foundation could continually adapt and repurpose. We produced the “This Close” public service announcement video, which featured the tagline, “We Are This Close to Ending Polio,” referring to the fact that polio was 99% eradicated and that the Rotary Foundation’s End Polio Now initiative was working to reach 100% eradication. To help drive the reach of the video, we launched an expansive influencer marketing campaign, engaging relevant celebrities, artists, and public figures from around the world to participate in and/or share the PSA, which was released in six different languages.

Ultimately, the End Polio Now public health PSA garnered 1.5 billion views and helped the Rotary Foundation raise $200 million in 18 months.

In addition, as part of the campaign, we worked to release the "End Polio Now" album, which featured music from 11 artists, including Ziggy Marley, Angélique Kidjo, and Nydia Caro, and assisted with the production and logistics of two music videos released in tandem with the album.

To help build lasting trust and excitement among Rotary International members, Entertain Impact helped the organization implement an ambassador program with public figures from around the world. In total, we engaged more than 30 new ambassadors, including Bill Gates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Itzhak Perlman, Amanda Peet and Her Majesty Queen Noor.

In addition, Entertain Impact was commissioned to help elevate the “End Polio Now” campaign among a select group of persuadable global leaders and ministries of health in advance of the Global Vaccine Summit.

In the end, the “End Polio Now” campaign was immensely successful by every count. The integrated influencer marketing campaign generated $200 million in direct donations to the Rotary Foundation, earned $29 million dollars in donated broadcast, print and digital media, and helped re-energize the fight to tackle the eradication of the remaining 1% of polio cases. Moreover, the policy-focused portion of our program led to an incredible $4 billion in funding commitments from governments, NGOs, foundations, and individual donors as part of a broader global immunization initiative.