The Campaign

THE LONGEST WAIT – an experiential idea that reduced the waiting time for guide dogs, by making VIPs wait for 8.5 years. In China, the waiting time to own a guide dog is up to 8.5 years due to the lack of donations. So, we created a special ticket machine that dispensed queue tickets with a waiting time of 8.5 years. By putting VIPs in the shoes of the visually impaired, they experienced The Longest Wait and this led many VIPs to purchase the investment product and donate to the cause, which then created social conversations that drove more people to participate.

Execution

We created a special ticket machine that dispensed queue tickets with a waiting time of 8.5 years. The machine was placed at the entrance of the VIP section, with bank attendants that were instructed to ignore walk-in VIP customers until they approached them. During the entire activation, we captured VIPs reactions via hidden cameras and compiled them into a video. With our VIPs consent, we shared it on social platforms for regular bank customers to access and find out more about the campaign. It didn’t take too long for news portals to pick up our idea and featured it on their front pages.

- Earned 6,000,000 impressions - Donated RMB1,000,000 to train more guide dogs - Reduced the waiting time for guide dogs

The Situation

We were selling an investment product that donates a portion to a guide dog association. In China, the waiting time to own a guide dog is 8.5 years due to lack of donations. So we had an idea that would stop people in their tracks, and news portals would feature on their front page. We did what has never been done before by any bank – putting VIPs in the shoes of the visually impaired and making them wait for 8.5 years. Our idea had a unique PR angle with a strong message and resonated well with our online audience.

The Strategy

We applied a dual-pronged approach and targeted VIPs and regular bank customers. To demonstrate the idea of The Longest Wait, we firstly targeted VIPs because they’re normally given a red-carpet treatment (they’re also the biggest donators due of their healthy account). Our desired outcome was to see VIPs being told to wait for 8.5 years, getting frustrated, and eventually purchase an investment product that donates a portion of sales to the cause. Once we had successfully infiltrated the VIPs, we shared their reactions with the regular bank customers via our social platforms. They found out more about this campaign, participated in it and shared this idea on their social platforms. The idea eventually reached the news portals and was featured on their front pages.