02 May, 2019

CIT Marketing Masters students have teamed up with Aperture Media to create a video promoting the Cork Cancer Care Centre’s Blankets of Hope programme.

The video, which was launched in March, features cancer survivor Nuala O’Brien sharing her experience of what Blankets of Hope meant to her during her illness.

The video resulted from a project undertaken by Keith Brown, Emma Gannon and Anna Horan as part of their MSc in Digital Marketing Strategy at CIT.

Their brief was to create an engaging digital marketing campaign that would draw awareness to their assigned charity, Cork Cancer Care Centre. Representatives from the Centre visited CIT to tell students about the many free services the Centre offers to cancer patients.

Keith Brown, who also works as SU Publications Manager in CIT, said he, Emma and Anna decided they needed to concentrate on one aspect of the charity’s work that was compelling and emotive. They settled on their Blankets of Hope programme.

Blankets of Hope was introduced by Cork Cancer Care Centre founder, the late Ann Dowley-Spillane, following a trip to Boston where she saw friends knitting blankets for residents of a retirement home.

Over the last four years CCCC have distributed 15,000 blankets, all created by volunteers, to cancer patients in oncology wards and hospices in the Cork and Kerry region.

With the subject matter chosen, the trio decided that a short video which could be shared on a variety of platforms would be the best method to promote Blankets of Hope. "But," Keith said, "there was just one problem, none of us had any experience in media production!"

However, opportunity came knocking in the form of film maker and former CIT student, Edvinas Maciulevicius. Maciulevicius was attending the CIT screening of a documentary he was involved in making called ‘My Other Life'.

Keith said, “I thought if I could get Ed interested in the project and in the great work CCCC do, he might be able to convince his colleagues in Aperture Media to get on board and produce the video”.

So, Keith, using all his marketing skills, pitched the idea to Ed, who was very receptive. “Once Ed came on board the project gathered momentum and Aperture Media agreed to produce the video free of charge,” he said.

Keith, Emma and Anna worked with Aperture Media to create the concept for the video. The media production company then took over, filming and interviewing Nuala O’Brien and volunteers at the knitting club.

The resulting video is a touching exploration of how the goodwill of volunteers can play such a positive and important role in a cancer patients’ journey.

General Manager of Cork Cancer Care Centre, Linda Goggin-James, hopes the video will help to create enough awareness to boost donations to the centre, which receives no government or HSE funding.

“We really appreciate the efforts of our blanket donors, and want to ensure that we can continue to fund their distribution, and the other activities of the centre, which are only possible though the generosity of others,” Linda said.

Keith said the video has gained a lot of traction on social media platforms and has been picked up by national newspapers and RTE.

“The main element of the project was getting an introduction to Ed and getting Aperture Media on board. Now Cork Cancer Care Centre have this beautiful finished product, and hopefully can do more videos on the other great services they offer,” he said.

Pictured at the lauch of the Blankets of Hope video in Gallaghers Gastropub were L-R: Emma Gannon, Anna Horan & Keith Brown, Digital Masters Students; Edvinas Maciulevicius, Aperture Media; Linda Goggin James, Cork Cancer Care Centre; Jordan Murshed, Niamh Burke & Daniel Fleming, from Aperture Media. Pic: Darragh Kane.

If you would like to find out more about collaboration opportunities within CIT, call 021 4335302 or email extendedcampus@cit.ie