The Power of Peer Support
Helping March of Dimes Canada's After Stroke Program raise awareness about peer support resources.
Overview
After Stroke is a national program from March of Dimes Canada offering personalized, long-term support for stroke survivors and their caregivers. Central to their work is peer support, connecting people with lived experience (PWLE) through both formal and informal support groups and offering practical tools to help build and sustain them.
Our task was to communicate the life-changing impact of Peer Support to diverse audiences, and promote valuable resources like the Peer Support Network, where people can connect with peer support groups across Canada, and the Peer Support Toolkit, which helps people set up and run their own group.
Project Scope
Objectives
Brand Awareness
Resource Promotion
Services
Creative Development
Digital & Print Media Development
Video Production
Campaign Strategy
Campaign Execution (Media Buying, Optimization)
Timeline
2024-2025
The Challenge
While peer support is proven to reduce isolation, anxiety, and depression for stroke survivors, many PWLE and caregivers may not know that peer support exists, or fully understand the power it has to change PWLE’s lives for the better. They may also face barriers in finding a group or starting their own. Similarly, healthcare professionals often lack accessible resources to recommend peer support as part of post-stroke recovery planning.
March of Dimes Canada’s goals were to increase awareness and participation in the After Stroke Peer Support Network, drive adoption of the Peer Support Toolkit among people with lived experience, and equip community leaders and healthcare professionals with this actionable, easy-to-use tool.
These goals presented a unique challenge from a marketing perspective, in that messaging needed to speak to PWLE and caregivers, as well as professionals, and grow not only awareness of After Stroke’s peer support resources but also an awareness of the power of peer support itself.
The Solution
To reach these different audience segments and bring together the goals of promoting both the Peer Support Toolkit and Network, we developed and launched a campaign designed to communicate the power of peer support.
By foregrounding personal stories, the creative invited audiences to see themselves reflected in the experiences of others. This emotional resonance helped overcome barriers to action and built trust in the value of peer support. The content helped potential users not only understand the practical benefits of peer support, but also feel what it could mean for them personally.
What We Did
Video Production
We produced a series of testimonial-style videos featuring stroke survivors who have participated in peer support, many of whom now serve as volunteers with March of Dimes Canada. These individuals spoke candidly about life after stroke and how connecting with others changed their outlook, confidence, and sense of hope.
Still Image Ads
Still image ads featuring photos of the people from the videos were used on social media to drive further engagement with the Peer Support Network and Toolkit.
Campaign Execution & Optimization
Each creative asset was tailored to specific points in the user journey. Videos helped build awareness and emotional connection. Static ads and social posts highlighted specific benefits of the Toolkit and Network. And deeper calls to action, like downloading resources or finding a group, were delivered through retargeted ads, once that trust had been established.
Building Awareness Through Storytelling
The awareness phase of the campaign, the critical first touchpoint, was driven by these videos featuring stroke survivors sharing their stories and the life-changing impact of peer support. The videos balanced somber and uplifting tones, capturing the realities of recovery alongside moments of connection and resilience. By highlighting both the challenges and the hope that follows stroke, the creative brought to life a central message: recovery is possible, and a supportive community is out there, ready to help.
Digital Toolkit: Creating Meaningful Engagement
We created a web-based version of the After Stroke Peer Support Toolkit, featuring original animated explainer videos. This version served as both a destination page for the campaign and a more accessible and user-friendly format of the downloadable toolkit document. For the campaign's acceptance and adoption phases, this helped turn passive interest into meaningful participation, an essential step in fostering real-world adoption and group formation.
The Results
The impact of the testimonial videos was immediate, with high levels of engagement and viewthrough rates on Meta, LinkedIn and YouTube. The campaign performed so well that an extension was requested by the client, this time with a focus on highlighting specific regions where peer support groups were available. To stay within budget, the extended phase repurposed existing creative with updated messaging that encouraged people with lived experience to take the final step and connect with a group in their area.
270,393
Video Views (75% completion)
$0.69
Cost-Per- Click
3,197
On-Site Interactions
Why This Campaign Mattered to Us
Fractal was involved from the outset, collaborating with March of Dimes Canada over an extended period to shape the Peer Support Toolkit into a format that was accessible, web-ready, and tailored to the needs of MODC’s core audiences. Following the toolkit’s development, we were brought on to lead the strategy for promoting both the toolkit and the broader Peer Support Network.
Our work included audience definition, message architecture, channel selection, and full creative development, spanning videography, copywriting, and landing page design, with UX and UI consultation. We also implemented tracking infrastructure, launched the campaign, and managed ongoing optimization.
This top to bottom involvement allowed us to align marketing strategy with product development from the beginning, reducing the risk of disconnects between the message and the offering, and ensuring a cohesive experience for end users.
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