The Brief

To make more and more people smile, so as to realise the corporate philosophy, Kyosei, of Canon (Kyosei 共生 refers to people, regardless of age, sex, race, religion or culture, will live happily and harmoniously with other people whether in good times or bad).

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

People do not always smile even when you ask them to, so it is not easy to make people smile genuinely. However, we realise that Hong Kong people are famous for their generousity, in terms of donating their time and resources for a good cause. In view of this "generosity", we created a "Donate a smile" Campaign, which asked people to donate their smile to Canon, who would in return donate HK$10 to the WWF. With this good cause, we hope people would be more willing to give a "smile".

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

Within 4 weeks from the launch of "Donate a smile". We collected almost 10,000 smiles, and Canon had already donated HK$100,000 to the WWF to help save the Earth. Many of our donors shared this activity and extended their warm smiles on Facebook and blogs, which further triggered more and more smiles. Mass media coverage was extensive too, including PR and media websites, magazine editorials etc. In addition, our iPhone app was downloaded around the world with smiles spreading to people of different races, colours and nationalities across the globe. Our mission to make more people smile is achieved, thus our consumers are actively engaged to the brand and the brand image is significantly enhanced.

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

1) This campaign made more and more people smile, while at the same time helped save the Earth through donations to the WWF. This actively engaged consumers to the brand and was in line with the brand's image as a socially responsible corporation. 2) This campaign made use of photo taking as the core mechanics, which was most relevant to Canon as a brand's of imaging products and services.