Results and Effectiveness

The campaign became the talking point of among both online and offline media, generating an estimated HKD $1.4million worth of additional media coverage. Donations poured in at record rates and within 16 weeks, the campaign had generated HK$2.9MILLION worth of donations – smashing 2011's record by 55% - vs. a category average of just 14% growth. [See chart 2] Most rewarding was that the best result was that the donations were enough to fund sight-saving surgeries for 9,600 people - who would have otherwise had to live with the prospect of blindness.

Creative Execution

For 6 years running, ORBIS had sold branded pins (badges) as their main public fundraising mechanism. We saw this as a media opportunity, by turning each individual pin as a medium for communicating our message. We took scrap parts from the retiring ORBIS DC-10; from the fuselage, doors, seats even life jackets – and transformed them into ORBIS pins Because they were made from recycled parts, no two pins were the same. They all had their own distinctive characteristics – scratches, marks, dents – the tangible evidence of the plane’s 30 years of sight-saving missions. This made them eminently collectable. By buying a pin, they helped fund the new ORBIS plane and its sight-saving mission, whilst owning a collectible piece of the old one. Pins were sold on the street, online and by direct marketing. Sales were supported with a new advertising campaign which brought home the importance of ORBIS’ 2012 mission.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

"GIVING THE GIFT OF SIGHT - The ORBIS charity operates a 'flying eye-hospital'. They fly to remote locations, providing sight-saving treatment to those in need. Funding is generated through their annual 'pins campaign', where branded pins are sold to the public for a discretionary donation. In 2011, this generated a record-breaking HKD $1.8million in donations. Our challenge was to sustain the result in 2012. [See chart 1] Our target audience was the entire Hong Kong donating public: anyone with eyes and a heart. In 2012 we faced another challenge that ORBIS plane had reached the end of its life and funding was required urgently to refit their new plane. This became the inspiration behind our big idea. What if we gave people the chance to own a piece of aviation history? What if we turned the old aircraft's parts into the medium for the new campaign?"