Turning the table on Annika Ramchandani

Annika Ramchandani is an Associate Creative Director at Sid Lee, Montreal, Quebec, with over 14 years of experience creating bold, award-winning campaigns for global brands including Havana Club, Samsung, Neutrogena, IDEO, and Tennis Canada. Her work has been recognized by The Webby Awards, Applied Arts, Marketing Awards, Awwwards, Créa Awards, Strategy, and the Cannes Carte Blanche shortlist.

Annika accepted our invitation to join the 2025 Applied Arts Advertising Awards jury, bringing her sharp creative eye to celebrate outstanding work. She highlighted her Heart & Stroke ad campaign as one of her favourite projects—a project that truly changes lives.

The Heart & Stroke Foundation is a Canadian organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke through research, advocacy, and public awareness initiatives. Beats is a campaign developed by Sid Lee in partnership with Heart & Stroke, all centred around a shared mission: to beat heart disease and stroke.

In past years, the campaign focused on survivors, telling their stories of recovery by celebrating their strength and resilience. This year, we decided to flip the script and shine a light on the silent heroes who make those recoveries possible: the researchers. These men and women work tirelessly to advance life-saving research. As the film puts it:

“Research is hard to see. But its impact is impossible to ignore.”

 That’s exactly why we wanted to give these heroes the spotlight, in the most authentic way possible.

Back in August, in the kitchen of a cozy café in Calgary, the director, crew, agency, and clients all held their breath, listening intently through their headsets. In the front room, Dr. Lori West, a pioneering pediatric cardiologist whose groundbreaking discovery 30 years ago proved that infants needing heart transplants don’t require matching blood types, sat down for what she thought was just a regular interview. What she didn’t know was that the café was filled with people whose lives had been saved or changed by her work, including the staff and the interviewer.

 What were some unique features of the campaign?

This isn’t your typical campaign. It’s all real, right from the people with lived experiences, to the researcher. Everything that unfolded was unscripted. It's rare for researchers to be put in the spotlight, and we wanted to change that. This was our way of surprising a researcher in the best way possible, as a token of gratitude for saving thousands of lives and counting. 

What were the success stats or indicators?

It's fairly early as the campaign just launched. However, some early statistics indicate that the film stunt is going viral, with over 300k likes in just under a week since the campaign went live. It has also gained traction on CBC, The Social, and CTV.

Why is this particular project a fave? 

This one will always have a special place in my heart because it’s so much more than just a campaign, it’s a moment of real, lasting impact. We’ve all seen surprise-reveal tactics, but here the surprise serves something much deeper: it honours a person whose work has literally changed lives. Everyone involved showed up for all the right reasons: From the people with lived experiences to the Heart & Stroke team through to accounts, strategy, production and creatives (including my teammates Jake and Manali at Sid Lee). There were no gimmicks. No bells and whistles. And no script for the gratitude that unfolded. Just genuine reactions and a team united by purpose.

Annika's Takeaway

“The sheer impact this has had on lives is what makes this project a success.”

Advertising at its best is when creativity meets real-world impact—and Beats does exactly that.