Habitat For Humanity: REAL ESTATE

Credits & Description:

Category: Direct Response Digital: E-commerce, Online Advertising, Brand Awareness & Social Media

Advertiser: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

Product/Service: CHARITY

Agency: OGILVY & MATHER HUNGARY

Date of First Appearance: Oct 11 2010

Entrant Company: OGILVY & MATHER HUNGARY, Budapest, HUNGARY

Entry URL: http://www.mrlazlo.hu/habitat-real-estate/

Creative Director: Will Rust (Ogilvy & Mather Hungary)

Art Director: Zoltan Visy (Ogilvy & Mather Hungary)

Copywriter: Karolina Galacz (Ogilvy & Mather Hungary)

Account Director: Attila Probald (Ogilvy & Mather Hungary)

Account Executive: Brigitta Hohn (Ogilvy & Mather Hungary)

Editor: Yuri Reznichenko

Media placement: Classified Ad/Banner On Website - Www.ingatlanmenedzser.hu - 4 October 2010

Media placement: Classified Ad/Banner On Website - Www.ingatlan.com - 11 October 2010



Describe the brief/objective of the direct campaign.

We were asked by our client to bring the shocking facts about poverty housing in Hungary to its biggest potential benefactor, the nation’s middle class. Of the country’s 10 million people, 1.2 million are either homeless or living in conditions unfit for human habitation. We wanted to provoke a response with our target and bring the facts of the country’s long-standing and worsening housing crisis back into discussion and dialogue.



Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective with reference to the projected response rates and desired outcome.

Our messages masqueraded as typical classified accommodation ads. The copy drew an unpleasant yet realistic picture of the living conditions for each residence. Below the ads were direct links to Habitat’s facebook page and a page for donations. As Habitat’s objective is to increase people’s awareness of the problem, showing the miserable conditions that 12% of the country’s population have to survive in each day right next to properties of middle-income buyers and renters were impossible to ignore.



Explain why the creative execution was relevant to the product or service.

We aimed to shock by contrast and created classified ads for typical examples of poverty housing: park benches, squats, ruined houses & rural camps. To communicate directly with our target audience, we partnered with the two biggest real estate portals in Hungary, immediately saturating the real estate market. Since our media budget was non-existent, we expected 100.000 views and hoped to double Habitat’s facebook fan base. With the kind cooperation of our real estate partners, our ads appeared within the top ten search results for any apartment, house or lodgings for two months at the end of 2010.



Describe the results in as much detail as possible with particular reference to the RESPONSE of the target audience including deliverability statistics, response rates, click throughs, sales cost per response, relationships built and overall return on investment.

The ads were viewed by half a million unique users, over 4 million times. Habitat’s facebook page, which was dominated by international fans prior to this campaign, tripled its fan base with most of the new likes coming from Hungary. Average time spent on Habitat’s homepage doubled and donations also increased. We stirred 5% of the country’s population with 0 media and production budgets to restart discussion on the plight of 1.2 million Hungarians.