The Brief

Once Again, a Bangalore-based NGO, collects items you don’t use anymore, sells it at a minimal price to the underprivileged and uses this money for the empowerment of their community - supporting a creche for their children, providing vocational training to women and computer training to young adults. It wanted to maximize donations but not many people knew about the charity. Also, it had no budgets to spread the word. The objective was to make Once Again recognizable and maximize donations to support its activities. The challenge was to accomplish this with no budgets in hand.

Creative Execution

To ensure effectiveness, Once Again decided to sharply target a segment of population that could act as the trailblazers for the brand – the youth. Given that the Indian youth spend a disproportionate amount of their time and attention in uploading pictures to Facebook, Once Again recognized that the audience’s old items worth donating were languishing not just in their closets, but also in their vintage Facebook pictures. The easy tagging activity, which didn't involve any apps that ask for personal information, went viral. It helped spread the word about the NGO faster, attracted many volunteers and increased donations significantly.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Once Again wanted to make the act of donating, fun and engaging. Through ‘The Tagging Drive’, an online donation drive on Facebook, it reached out to the youth at no cost. The drive got youth to tag their friends’ old pictures as ‘Once Again’, urging them to donate old items. When the friend received the notification, curiosity prompted them to click on the tag, leading them to the Once Again page where they read, “You’ve been tagged to remind you that someone somewhere needs your old stuff more than you. Please donate.” This compelling message was to encourage higher participation.

Results

Thousands of pictures were tagged in ‘The Tagging Drive’. With a total spending of a mere $189, the buzz generated helped Once Again establish a successful, sustainable model enabling them to continue their work in the communities. Within the first 3 months, the results showed: • Over 50,000 items collected • 462% increase in funds generated from the store • Increase in Facebook fans from 0 to 1,500 (using only organic growth – no Facebook advertising) ‘The Tagging Drive’ is an on-going activity on Facebook.