Objective

At the Elton John AIDS Foundation, we set out to raise awareness that the HIV/AIDS crisis is not a thing of the past; three new people are diagnosed with HIV every minute and each year AIDS claims hundreds of lives. The LGBTQ+ community is still one of the groups most affected by the HIV epidemic.

In 2023, The Foundation launched The Rocket Fund – our $125 million fundraising goal to turbocharge our mission to reach the most underserved people and communities who need our support. This year, the Foundation created ‘Speak Up Sing Out’ - a social media movement and a rallying cry against LGBTQ+ discrimination and stigma. Our key objectives for this campaign were to:

1. Engage our online community to rally in support of the LGBTQ+ community, amplifying messages of compassion and inclusivity.
2. Unite communities through the power of social media by celebrating LGBTQ+ individuals and their courage to live and love as their authentically true selves.
3. Deepen the Foundation’s brand awareness and engagement to raise the organization’s profile as a leading global AIDS & LGBTQ+ organization. 

We encouraged individuals to participate by sharing a heartfelt rendition of the final verse of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’, along with naming an individual who has supported them on their journey towards self-acceptance. All US-based participants were automatically entered into a giveaway for a chance to win a meet and greet with Elton John and David Furnish in New York City.

Strategy

Since The Rocket Fund’s launch, we have raised $100 million out of our target of $125 million - but our work isn’t done. In a climate marked by a concerning surge in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the United States, with 510 such laws introduced in 2023, and 75 enacted, the campaign emerged as a beacon of solidarity and action for the LGBTQ+ community and activated a movement, rallying alongside the LGBTQ+ community for Pride 2024.

With the backing and platform of our pioneering founder, Elton John, we wanted to use our unique voice and influence to advocate for an end to the discrimination towards LGBTQ+ communities, determined to stem the tide of hate and uplift the rights, health, and well-being of LGBTQ+ people globally.

To effectively create a social movement campaign, we included as many people’s voices as possible as a rallying cry of love, support and light for the LGBTQ+ community during Pride 2024. ‘Speak Up Sing Out’ was a public call to action for our online community to take part by speaking up and singing out in appreciation of the special people in their lives who celebrate and support them in living as their truly authentic selves.

To maximize the impact of our message, we developed a comprehensive strategy that combines influencer partnerships, paid media, earned media coverage, and the Foundation’s social channels for broad and effective outreach.

To reach and achieve our objectives, we asked our online community to ‘Speak Up Sing Out’ in support of the LGBTQ+ community, by celebrating the incredible people in their lives who encourage them to live as their genuine selves. We achieved this by:

1. Crafting a schedule of engaging organic and paid social content including user-generated content sharing community engagement and support, as well as collaboration posts with LGBTQ+ influencers and celebrities to raise brand awareness and push a significant growth across our social media platforms.
   • We secured talent – Kristin Chenoweth, Vanessa Williams, Charlotte Tilbury, Jewel, Mickey Guyton, MJ Rodriguez and Billy Porter - to create content for the campaign launch sharing their own renditions of Elton John’s ‘Your song’ along with their celebration of people who have supported them in being their authentic selves.
   • We launched the campaign on Instagram with a collaboration post with Elton John and David Furnish, where they shared the collective mission and ask.
2. Focusing on striking a chord with the media, offering US and UK exclusives and key leadership interviews.
3. Collaborating with LGBTQ+ influencers – Josh Helfgott, Nimay Ndolo, Raven Schwam-Curtis, Kalen Allen and Steph Forsch – to increase the campaign’s wider reach.
4. Curating a paid social media strategy across Facebook and Instagram in the UK and US to expand the campaign’s reach beyond Elton John supporters and into the wider LGBTQ+ community.
5. Creating a strategic email marketing campaign to drive donations to reach our target of raising $125 million for The Rocket Fund.

Results

Through our social media channels, achieved 2.3M organic Instagram impressions, and gained an additional 5,871 new followers on Instagram, almost doubling our target of 3,000 new followers across the campaign period.

We received 795 entries via our hashtag #SpeakUpSingOutGiveaway.

We obtained 391 media coverage pieces, totalling 3.1 billion global media impressions.

Through our Instagram collaborations with celebrities and friends of the Foundation, we achieved 1.21 million impressions and 59.8K engagements. Our KPI was to reach 300,000 accounts on Instagram in June, and we superseded that reaching 1.85 million accounts through organic social.

Through our Instagram collaboration posts with Elton John and David Furnish, we achieved 614.7K impressions and 53.8K engagements.

On the influencer side, we received over 300K views, and almost 16K likes.

Across Facebook aand Instagram in the UK and US, our Speak Up Sing Out ads received over 115K clicks to the Foundation’s Instagram account, 7.3 million impressions and approximately 8K comments, post reactions, shares and saves across the US and the UK.

Through our media engagement, we garnered widespread coverage across print, broadcast, digital and radio platforms, acquiring two media exclusives with People (US) and Attitude (UK), as well as a community interview with our CEO, Anne Aslett. Our press release was picked up by 527 national outlets in the US and UK, potentially reaching an audience of over 168 million. We also worked to create ten media features showcasing the campaign and the Foundation’s overarching impact.

Media