Child Abuse Action Group: REAL MONSTERS

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Guerilla Marketing in a Promotional Campaign

Advertiser: CHILD ABUSE ACTION GROUP

Product/Service: CHILD ABUSE AWARENESS

Agency: OWENKESSEL COMMUNICATIONS

Date of First Appearance: Oct 30 2010

Entrant Company: OWENKESSEL COMMUNICATIONS, Fourways, SOUTH AFRICA

Copywriter: Dohne Grobler (OwenKessel)

Art Director: Eras Gous (OwenKessel)

Executive Creative Director: Felix Kessel (OwenKessel)

Creative Director: Martin Sing (OwenKessel)

Creative Director: Mike Cook (OwenKessel)

Media placement: Guerilla Marketing - Malls & Suburbs Around Gauteng Provinvce, South Africa. - 30 October 2010



Describe the objective of the promotion.

Even though their name suggests action, The Child Abuse Action Group (CAAG) is all about prevention.



Our brief from the CAAG was exactly that – to create a campaign to encourage parents to start a conversation with their children about the realities of child abuse and to arm them with the required knowledge to identify possible abusers and to avoid dangerous situations.



Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation.

We had to get parents to educate their children about the monsters that exist in our society.



To do this we decided to target parents at a time when monsters are most relevant. Parents would find it perfectly normal to receive a free monster mask whilst out shopping for Halloween outfits and during neigbourhood trick or treating and that's exactly what our volunteers did.



Of course there was a twist. The mask inside the pack didn't resemble that of a zombie, but instead looked like a very ordinary looking person. The message: The scariest monsters don’t look like monsters.



Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service.

As with most NGO's, funds are always an issue, the budgets for awareness campaigns are tight and any communication needs to work extremely hard and must absolutely cut through the clutter.



We knew we had to ignite a conversation between the parent and the child instantly. Targeting parents at a time when they would be with their kids i.e whilst trick or treating or shopping for Halloween decorations was the perfect opportunity. Speaking to parents about child abuse at a time when their children would be knocking on strangers' doors made the message even more relevant and impactful.



Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results.

The masks were very well received. Parents and their children interacted with the masks and talked about them.



The client noted a definite increase in calls to the call centre, and traffic to the website doubled in the period following the campaign.