The Campaign

'Ronald McDonald House' is a facility near hospitals where children with intractable diseases can stay with their families. The campaign objective was to increase its awareness and raise more funds. With limited budget and the fact that charity is not deeply rooted in Japanese culture, our challenge was how to move people to action. 'Origami cranes'- the traditional symbol for 'healing' in Japan- were used as the medium for parents and children to express their heart felt support. From Origami sets provided with Happy Meals, 264,223 cranes were made in just two weeks- and donations soared by 82.9%.

Success of the Campaign

Happy Origami Crane Project did not just meet - it exceeded all expectations, increasing donations from McDonald's restaurants and changing attitudes and behavior towards charitable donations. Donations for Ronald McDonald House soared by 82.9% in January 2010. Growth of donations continued to show strength to date, resulting in 71.9% increase for Q1 2010. A total of more than 264,000 cranes were collected by this campaign, which were presented to the 6 Houses on March 2010. Donations submitted to Headquarters by month (Source: McDonald's Japan) year-on-year donation increase Jan. 182.9% Feb. 150.7% Mar. 181.1% Q1 ave. 171.9%

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

November 6, 2009, the campaign was launched at store by given out Origami papers with every Happy Meals. Campaign in-store posters, magazine and radio ad were used in November to raise the awareness of the campaign. In February, a giant artwork crane was finished by local elementary school students with using thousands of donated origami cranes, which was given to the Ronald McDonald's House facility. In March, a TV film was aired in summarizing this campaign. During the campaign period, a number of PR effect were generated, which lead the success number of the result - dramatic donation increase.