Red Cross: DON'T LET HOPE GET WASHED AWAY

Credits & Description:

Category: Charities, Public Health & Safety, Public Awareness Messages

Advertiser: CANADIAN RED CROSS

Product/Service: NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

Date of First Appearance: Aug 21 2010

Entrant Company: COSSETTE MEDIA, Montréal, CANADA

Media Planner: Véronic Cholette-Roberts (Cossette Media)

Account Director: Laura Araujo (Cossette Media)

Assistant Web Planner: Yannick Bouchard (Cossette Media)

Senior Print Buyer: Ghislaine Morin (Cossette Media)

Sales Manager, Eastern Canada: Mark Gravel (National Post)

Director of Innovation and Business Development: Duncan Clark (National Post)

Media placement: Print - National Post + 12 Other Publications - 21 August 2010

Media placement: Internet - Www.nationalpost.com - 21 August 2010



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Despite the 20 million affected, 43 billion dollars lost and several appeals from the UN for International Aid, the Pakistan floods disaster received little media coverage. Pakistan is in Haiti’s shadow and the donations are 13 times fewer. A survey showed that 72% of Canadians wouldn’t give to Pakistan due to the history of terrorism in the country. The RED CROSS needed to get people talking about Pakistan to sensitize Canadians and in turn arouse their generosity. Knowing that non-profit organisations receive the majority of donations in the days following disasters, we needed to communicate the urgency of donating.

We immediately launched a simple but efficient campaign that paralleled falling rain with the lack of words devoted to the crisis in news articles. This emergency campaign appeared in the press and on the web to ensure immediate impact.



Creative Execution

Our creative strategic solution liquefied words to demonstrate falling rain and the lack of media coverage of the Pakistan floods disaster; words were washed away like the homes of so many Pakistanis.



This campaign included major national newspapers and web banners on key networks which provided flexibility of short lead times & incited immediate interest and action.



Through our partnership with National Post, the CANADIAN RED CROSS campaign was seamlessly integrated within all editorial content covering the catastrophe.



Two spectacular formats were developed: A dominant ad in the National Post newspaper and a takeover of nationalpost.com blurred the lines between advertising and editorial.



To generate additional reach and frequency, web banners drove traffic to the CANADIAN RED CROSS website and smaller newspaper formats were placed in a dozen daily newspapers across the country.



Results and Effectiveness

In the end, we overcame the campaigns’ adversities and increased traffic to the RED CROSS website by 42%; contributing to raise 14 million dollars in donations and allowing the RED CROSS to create new clinics and provide medical aid to more than 57,000 affected citizens.