THE HIDDEN PRESS RELEASE

Short List
TitleTHE HIDDEN PRESS RELEASE
BrandSAVE THE CHILDREN
Product / ServiceSAVE THE CHILDREN FUND
CategoryA01. Mailings
EntrantDRAFTFCB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Entrant Company:DRAFTFCB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
DM/Advertising Agency:DRAFTFCB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
James Mok Draftfcb Executive Creative Director
Tony Clewett Draftfcb Creative Director
Leisa Wall Draftfcb Art Director
Scott Kelly Draftfcb Copywriter
Laura Goldie Draftfcb Account Director
Benj Berryman Draftfcb Account Manager

The Brief

We needed to get magazine editors interested in writing about the new Save the Children New Zealand annual appeal. But with an Earthquake in Christchurch (one of New Zealand’s major cities), a Tsunami in Japan, and an impending famine in Africa, there were a lot of charities vying for attention at the same time. Rather than ask for money, our campaign told people where to find it. Research told us that, on average, there is $11.40 in loose change hiding in every New Zealand house. We helped you find it, so you could donate it to us.

Creative Execution

So we stuffed real vacuum cleaner bags with (not so dirty) debris, which included cotton wool, wasabi peas, feathers, buttons, real coins and the actual press release – which was only discovered after tearing open the vacuum cleaner bag and rifling through its contents. It was a simple yet powerful interactive demonstration of our creative idea – digging around the house for loose change.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Our campaign told people to ‘Dig Deep and help save the Kids’. It showed people where to look to find the loose change hiding in their house: behind the couch cushions, in the kitchen drawers and of course in the vacuum cleaner bag.

Results

Over 70 packs were sent out to various publications. Magazine editors were intrigued enough to ‘Dig Deep’ in their vacuum cleaner bags to find our press release – and the resulting press and PR coverage gave us the kick-start to the campaign we were looking for.