“We really love what you guys do.”

We’ve heard it countless times over the past 6 years. This is what people say to us after seeing the FightMND campaign while reading their morning paper or watching the nightly news.

FightMND is the rarest of brands; one that is able to harness the emotion of a social movement and combine it with the reach of network media drivers and the power of retail fundraising.

The inspiration behind all this is, of course, Neale Daniher. A master motivator with the ability to unify millions of people in the race to find a cure for Motor Neurone Disease – all while battling the monster himself right before our eyes.

For the past 6 years, Kommunal have had the privilege of standing ringside as millions of Australians rallied behind this incredible cause.

2020, however, has been different.

The year of COVID has tested everyone beyond limits, not least of all the FightMND team themselves. Faced with not being able to hold their biggest annual fundraising event – “Big Freeze at the G” – the passionate team swiftly chose to focus fundraising efforts solely through their iconic Beanie. After all, when you’ve spent years fighting against one of the worlds nastiest diseases, a little change in marketing tactics is child’s play.

The result from this promotional pivot has been astonishing. Overall, they have raised $12M in Beanie sales and donations alone. The FightMND team partnered up with Coles and Bunnings, Channel 7 and The Herald Sun, JC Decaux and oOH to produce a campaign result beyond expectations.

Jamie Howden, FightMND CEO, commented:

To reflect back to late February when the COVID-19 pandemic really started to impact the community and we were looking at a range of scenarios, including the campaign not going ahead, through to today where we are culminating in the most successful campaign we have ever delivered is brilliant. To have raised $12M is incredible and makes the Big Freeze 6 campaign one of the most successful charity campaigns in the country.

For the Kommunal team, our involvement over the last 6 years has been focused on brand development and strategy and creation of campaign assets. Everyone on that team from Rod Curtis (Strategy/Creative Director), Tony Osborne (Creative), Elly Whorlow (Co-Ordination) and Linh Nguyen (Digital), to Cathal Geaney (Got it Made Productions), Hannah Capes and Emma Leith (Empirica Research) to Julie Schroder and Lizzie Deller (Studio Hoopla) has contributed mightily to our role.

More importantly, the satisfaction from playing our small role in FightMND’s success is evidence of our own brand in action… “Our purpose is to help our clients find theirs.” 2020 has been a challenging year, but we’re excited and inspired to see so many brands emerge from the rubble to find their true purpose despite all the obstacles in their way.