DONATE YOUR FACE

TitleDONATE YOUR FACE
BrandOPERATION SMILE/TENCENT FOUNDATION
Product / ServiceOPERATION SMILE PROJECT
CategoryB03. Fundraising & Advocacy
EntrantCHEIL WORLDWIDE Beijing, CHINA
Idea Creation CHEIL WORLDWIDE Beijing, CHINA
Production OCTOPUS Beijing, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Wei Xu Cheil China Senior Creative Director
Penny Wang Cheil China Group Head
Burger Yuan Cheil China Art Director
Yuhan Zhao Cheil China Copywriter
Daniel Qu Cheil China Copywriter
Lee Meng chien Cheil China Senior producer
Levi Duan Cheil China Technical Director
Zafir Li Cheil China Technical Lead
Polly Chu Freelance Creative Consultant/Copywriter
Murphy Chou Freelance Copywriter
Jacky Lung Freelance Executive Creative Director
Hui Tang HuiTu Image Group Photographer
Arrow Guo Tencent Social Advertising Vice General Manager
Erin Yang Tencent Social Advertising Chief Creative Consultant
Weijia Yang Tencent Social Advertising Senior Director of Brand & PR
Ivor Xu Tencent Social Advertising Senior Brand Manager
Jeffrey Zhao Tencent Social Advertising Senior Product Manager
Huixing Wang Tencent Cloud General Manager
Burt Liu Tencent Cloud Director of Copute Product Center
Joseph Lu Tencent Cloud Project Manager of Operation Product Center
Peter Wu Tencent Cloud R&D Team Leader
Liam Huang Tencent Cloud R&D Team Leader
Rainbow Gao Pitu Chief person in charge
Ellazh Yang Pitu Product Operations Manager
Ritata Yang Pitu Product Operations Manager
Jue Huang Pitu Product manager
Miley Shi Pitu Product Manager Assistant
Yilia He Operation Smile Development Director of Greater China

The Campaign

It’s hard to imagine what kids with CLEFT CONDITION are going through, Unless they live through it themselves. “Donate Your Face” turned people’s faces into those of children with cleft condition, Giving the public an intuitive perception of the unfairness and pressure those kids could face, To raise awareness and provoke thinking of this disease.

Creative Execution

We created an interactive page on WeChat and invited consumers to upload their profile pictures. We used facial recognition technology to capture unique features of each users, AI algorithm to generate their simulated childhood photos with cleft condition then published them on social media. On March 25, 2018, one week before World Health Day, we launched the campaign on WeChat, China's largest social networking platform. In order to stir up a buzz, we invited public figures like the snooker world champion Ding Junhui, well-known entrepreneur Ren Zhiqiang, Yu Hai from Chinese National Football Team, and the Olympic badminton champion Li Xuerui etc. to participate, so that more people would see our actions could actually bring significant changes to children suffered from CLEFT CONDITION and that we could help them achieve more potentials.

“What would my life be like if I had a cleft condition?” sparked discussions among the public. The campaign received a strong response, with a total of 23 million reaches. It attracted more than 70,000 to participate in “donating” faces the first day it was launched, got shared 25, 000 times, received donations from more than 56,000 people, and helped children from over 160 of poor families receive facial reconstruction surgeries. But it’s not just about fundraising. “Donating Your Face” presented people with an intuitive perception of the prejudice and pressure patients with cleft condition would face. It is almost impossible to imagine what those people have to overcome in daily lives when it is hard enough for us to simply post a picture of ourselves on social media.

We didn’t launch this campaign to simply send a message, or to help NGO with fundraising. We did it to change the orthodoxies and behaviors of the public through effective interactions and accurate media choices.

In China, more than 1 billion mobile users are active on the largest social media platform-WeChat. They are enthusiastically sharing their best sides online, and it can be illustrated by the popularity of “beauty cameras” amongst younger generations. Meanwhile, those from Tier 1 cities show more social engagement than those not, and they are extremely addicted to mobile devices. Wechat in this context, can encourage thinkings and trigger actions in public by using big data labels to launch targeted advertising,as well as generating hot topics through the huge contrast created in its visuals. We encouraged users to share on social media their imperfect pictures with cleft condition, using visual and psychological contrast to appeal to their friends for more shares.