TORONTO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--If you were given a $100 bill to make a difference in someone else’s life, what would you do?
That’s the question at the core of Klick Health’s new holiday video showing hundreds of its employees bringing joy (and often tears) to unsuspecting people across the U.S. and Canada. For every YouTube view of the aptly named ‘#SpreadJoy’ holiday video, Klick will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish Canada to help spark joy for children with critical illnesses.
The three-minute production features many of the 630 Klicksters who, after volunteering for the feel-good project, each received a $100 bill with the simple directive to use it to spread joy. Many took the opportunity to give back to local business and public service providers who have been there for them throughout the pandemic.
Some pooled their dollars together, others went solo — all wearing their festive ‘Klick blue’ holiday scarves and self-filming a wide range of kind gestures, which left many recipients speechless and teary-eyed, and even prompted some to ask for a hug. The emotional footage collectively builds to the video’s crescendoing message that “When you give joy, you get joy.”
“We were blown away by how thoughtful, empathetic, and astoundingly creative Klicksters were in putting $100 bills to great use to spread joy,” said Chief Creative Officer Rich Levy. “Beyond coming up with really meaningful ways to pay it forward, they also serve as the cinematographers, location scouts, and stars of our 2021 holiday video. We couldn’t be prouder of how everyone, including our in-house production team, collaborated and put so much heart and soul into it.”
Among the video’s many moving moments:
- Bringing a stranger to tears by paying for a new transmission and tires for their car
- Surprising a neighborhood coffee shop barista with a $100 tip
- Hiring a five-piece brass band to entertain residents of a retirement community
- Leaving $20-bill-filled envelopes on random car windshields with the note “Just Because”
- Brightening a bad-weather day for a school crossing guard with a $100 bill and a “thank you for being you and dancing even when it’s raining”
- Bringing Christmas early with toys for four young siblings who lost their parents during the pandemic and giving their grandmother $4,000 to help with their care
According to Klick’s Chief People Officer Glenn Zujew, “One single act of kindness can inspire many more, and we hope that our holiday video inspires other companies to #SpreadJoy. We can’t thank our Klicksters enough for continuing to prioritize giving back, in keeping with our people-first culture and values, and we are excited to announce that the video is also supporting Make-A-Wish to bring joy to children with critical illnesses, too.”
Klick today pledged to donate $1 for each of the first 10,000 YouTube views of ‘#SpreadJoy’ to Make-A-Wish Canada. The company is also adding Make-A-Wish to its internal Klick it Forward giving platform for the month of December so employees can direct the corporate donation dollars they receive to the charity.
“Every child deserves a childhood full of joyful holiday experiences. We are incredibly inspired by Klick Health for this wonderful opportunity and strong belief in our mission,” said Sheila Rees, Executive Vice President, Development, at Make-A-Wish Canada. “This generous gift will spark joy that will rejuvenate and help our wish kids cope with the stress of fighting a critical illness and create hope for brighter days ahead.”
By The Numbers: How Klick #SpreadJoy
- 630 employees volunteered; each received a $100 bill to #SpreadJoy
- 284 acts of kindness were filmed across 15 states and six provinces (Some acts were not filmed at the request of recipients)
- A notable amount of joy (31%) was spread to local business and public service providers, such as baristas, restaurant servers, bus drivers, and garbage collectors
- 1,704 video clips were submitted (including giving moments, post-giving reactions, and b-roll footage)
- 10:28 hours’ worth of footage
- 38 hours spent reviewing footage
- 270 hours in post-production
Klick has a long legacy of creating memorable holiday videos. Its popular 2020 ‘When Nobody’s Watching’ video received almost five million YouTube views, while its 2019 ‘Kindness is Contagious’ video received six million views and won a Webby Award. In 2019, the CW Network featured Klick’s ‘Epic Office Holiday Remix with Andrew Huang’ on its ‘Greatest Holiday Commercials Countdown’ show.
Klick’s ‘#SpreadJoy’ holiday video can be viewed, liked, and shared on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3l7p_JUnyg.
About Make-A-Wish® Canada
Make-A-Wish® creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. We are on a quest to bring every eligible child's wish to life, because a wish is an integral part of a child's treatment journey. Research shows children who have wishes granted can build the physical and emotional strength they need to fight a critical illness. As an independently operating affiliate of Make-A-Wish International, Make-A-Wish Canada is part of the network of the world’s leading children’s wish-granting organization. We serve children in every community in Canada, and in more than 50 countries worldwide. Since 1983, Make-A-Wish Canada has granted over 36,000 wishes across the country, over 1,000 last year alone. For more information about Make-A-Wish Canada, visit makeawish.ca.
About Klick Health
Klick Health is the world’s largest independent commercialization partner for life sciences. For over two decades, Klick has been laser-focused on developing, launching, and supporting life sciences brands to maximize their full market potential. Klick was named a Large Agency of the Year for both 2020 and 2021 by Medical Marketing + Media (MM+M), marking 10 Agency of the Year industry awards in 10 years. Follow Klick Health on Twitter at @KlickHealth. For more information on joining Klick, go to careers.klick.com.
About Klick Group
The Klick Group of companies – Klick Health (including Klick Katalyst), Klick Media Group, Klick Applied Sciences (including Klick Labs), Klick Consulting, Klick Ventures, and Sensei Labs – is an ecosystem of brilliant talent collectively working to maximize their people and clients’ full potential. Established in 1997, Klick has teams in New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and across North America. Klick has consistently been named a Best Managed Company and Great Place to Work. In 2020, the company was recognized with 14 Best Workplace awards, including Best Workplaces for Women, Best Workplaces for Inclusion, Employee-Recommended Workplaces, Most Admired Corporate Cultures, and FORTUNE’s Best Places to Work in New York.
FACT SHEET
New Research on the State of Giving at Most Companies
Data says most employees don’t feel involved in corporate giving decision-making despite their affinity for working for companies that give back and personally feeling joy when spreading kindness to others
After giving 630 employees $100 bills with the simple directive to use the money as they wanted to spread joy, Klick Health conducted an external research survey¹ to gage employees’ feelings on the state of corporate giving across the U.S. and Canada.
Among the findings from 1,000 representative working adults polled in the November 2021 study:
- Only 6.8% said their current employer has ever given them money to spread joy
- The majority (68.4%) said they can’t envision their current employer ever giving them and their co-workers money to spread joy to someone; one participant went so far as saying “no chance”
- Similarly, a whopping 59.9% said their employer does not involve them in philanthropic decisions and choosing which charitable initiatives the company supports
- Only 8.2% said their current employer has ever given them money to donate to a charity of their choice
- 67% said they are more likely to work for an employer who gives back to their community
- Despite feeling a lack of involvement in corporate giving decision-making, 94% said they feel joy when they personally spread kindness to others
¹Methodology: A cross-sectional sample of 500 United States and 500 Canadian participants completed the survey. Participants were gathered from nationally representative samples using the online survey platform Prolific (https://prolific.co/). Inclusion criteria were full-time employees of various companies across North America. A total of 497 male, 493 female, and 10 other (non-binary, gender nonconforming, agender, etc.) working adults responded, with an average age of 33.7 years (standard deviation 9.5 years), age range 18–69 years.