www.lighttounite.org
ICONNICHOLSON
“Light is a metaphor for hope and knowledge,” says Gregg Fisher, vice president of Health and Life Sciences Practice at IconNicholson. So it only seems appropriate that the firm developed an interactive candlelighting experience for the 2006 Light to Unite website. This annual campaign from Bristol-Myers Squibb raises awareness—as well as funds—for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in the U.S. “When people start to think about AIDS, they often think about Africa,” says See-ming Lee, art director and senior interface engineer. “It’s still a very serious disease in the United States.”

This fact was reinforced as soon as visitors logged onto the site. During the roughly seven-week campaign, which started on World AIDS Day, users found themselves facing an unlit candle against a dark background, with only a lit match to help them navigate the screen. As they moved the flame around, they illuminated startling statistics about HIV’s spread in the U.S., and these facts all became visible once users lit their candles. For every person who completed this simple act, Bristol-Myers Squibb donated $1 (up to $100,000) to the National AIDS Fund. Site visitors could also give additional funds.

Fisher says the project is a great example of what happens when you give power over to a community and let it take control. The majority of the site’s traffic came from people who found out about the effort through word-of-mouth online—not paid media. This becomes all the more impressive when you realize that more than 1.8 million candles were lit during this relatively brief effort. And through the first week of January 2007, more than 8000 people signed up for the site’s newsletter—and there were more than 200,000 requests to send the site to a friend. “It’s taken on a life of its own,” Fisher says. “Light to Unite is spreading life, spreading awareness, spreading knowledge.”

After lighting a candle, visitors could learn more about the personal impact of HIV/AIDS through the site’s user-generated stories. These short, emotional snippets were submitted through last year’s Light to Unite site, and they’re each represented by a burning candle. “We spent two weeks trying to animate a candle to make it look real,” Lee says. “Every single flame is animated differently.” This attention to detail heightens the experience as you navigate through individual stories or explore them by broad themes ranging from courage and fear to family—and the stories are still accessible now that the campaign has concluded.
Michelle Taute