The Campaign

The idea was a simple one. To make people realise that home is not something we should take for granted, we hijacked the nation's most clicked on home button.

Creative Execution

On one day, the 27th September 2016, we took over the home button on New Zealand's most popular news website. Rather than being taken to the home page, readers were redirected to films about 'the unexpected homeless' - as they had suddenly become homeless themselves.

Results

Traffic to the Salvation Army website reached a record high. We reached over a 1/4 of the nation. 650 people volunteered to give up their homes to raise money. Donations exceeded previous years.

On September 27th 2016, the world’s most iconic symbol for ‘home’ was interrupted. We partnered with New Zealand's biggest news website, plunging the country into unexpected homelessness with one little click. Hitting the home button on the site detoured New Zealanders to an unplanned home, revealing the unseen crisis. In one click people were suddenly inside the personal story of real people living in cars, garages and couch surfing.

Our strategy was to reach as many people as possible, as efficiently as possible. The call to action invited viewers to either continue to the 'home' they were looking for, or to help those that had no homes to go to.