Red Nose Me App Design and Build for SIDS and Kids

The Background

SIDS and Kids (now Red Nose Australia) had been a fixture on the Australian fundraising calendar for decades. Their Red Nose Day campaign was well-known and well-loved, but the physical red nose had no natural equivalent in the digital space. The organisation is non-government funded, relying entirely on public donations to support families affected by SIDS and to fund research into preventable infant deaths. When donor fatigue started pulling at the concept, the Everyday Hero team, led by Simon Lockyer, brought the challenge to Mettro, a Brisbane-based digital agency, to take a well-established fundraising idea and give it a genuine life online without losing what made it recognisable.

The Challenge

The red nose was iconic. The format had run its course with a digital-first audience. Any solution had to feel fresh enough to share, familiar enough to connect, and simple enough that anyone could take part. It also had to work at scale. The campaign lived or died on participation numbers. At the time, most brands were still working out what apps were actually for. There was no playbook to follow.

Our Approach

Mettro’s answer was to put the red nose on people’s faces, digitally. A free app let users take a photo, add a red nose, and share the result. The familiar mechanic did the heavy lifting. What Mettro added was the app design and development to make it work, and enough creative range to make it worth sharing.

The app kept the original red nose experience at its core, then extended it with additional overlays: reindeer antlers, novelty glasses, pirate patches. These took full advantage of what the digital space could offer. The UX design and development were provided entirely pro bono.

The Outcome

The app exceeded SIDS and Kids’ weekly target of 15,000 faces by more than 2,000. Across the full campaign, it attracted nearly 40,000 unique visitors. Red Nose Me was named a finalist in the AIMIA Awards.