Why is this work relevant for PR?

We just made an online shop that exhibits and sells photos shot by homeless people. The online shop went viral without advertisings. First it spread through online media, and in the end, it made a headline of one of the biggest papers in Japan. The huge fuzz raised the awareness of the issues of homeless people living in Japan, let people talk on SNSs about the issues. As a result, the number of donation to the NPO, which supports homeless people, increased after we opened the online shop.

Background

Collecting donation for homeless people has been a big challenge in Japan due to the lack of awareness and understanding of the issue that they have. So, we handed disposal cameras to homeless people and let them shoot snapshots of what they see in their daily lives. We also created a website that exhibits and sells their snapshots. Seeing and buying the snapshots promoted understandings of the issues homeless people have because the snapshots project the real lives and the real issues they are facing. By working together with homeless people, we expected them to feel less lonely, being needed, being together with someone, we also tried to encourage them to take the first step to start working.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The biggest challenge in this issue is how we can let people understand how homeless people live, how they feel every day, what issues they face. So, the idea is why don’t they speak out about their lives by themselves! We handed them disposal cameras and let their snapshots speak on behalf of them. Of course, their snapshots are cool because they have their unique ways to capture the world, the city, the landscape, and every single scene of life. That’s why the snapshots get to be artwork that gives us a whole new way to look at the world. Of course, they are valued and purchased. The sales of the work go to the homeless who took the snapshot. This whole system makes jobs and money for them as well as it promotes the understandings of the reality that the homeless face.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

The target we finally wanted to approach was the people who don’t know how the homeless live and what kind of issues they have. But since our project provides hip snapshots, we first approached the media that focus on culture and art. Then we approached social issues type media. The project was new to the media because it is not only an usual social project but it is also an art project that culture magazines talk about. Finally, we approached the biggest media. What is new to them was they can visit and broadcast the homeless taking pictures creating art. To summarize, the project was exposed on media with the perspective of art first, the social aspect second, the new way of showing homeless people at last.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Our client is NPO. That made us spend no money on advertising. Creating the website and purchasing the disposal cameras were the only costs we spent on this project. After opening the website, we sent promotion letters to media. The letters first sent to the art and culture media were about how those pictures are new and hot they give us whole new perspectives of the world, which made it look in art field. The letters second sent to social issues media were about this isn’t a typical social project but it is also an art project, which made it look new in social activity field. At last the letters sent to big media were about they can come and visit the homeless who create art, which was a new aspect of homeless people to media men.

List the results (30% of vote) – must include at least two of the following tiers:

The snapshots and the project as well as the issues the homeless have exposed on web media from small ones to the biggest in Japan, Yahoo! Japan. It made the headline of Yahoo! Japan, 20 days after we opened the website. It also made the headline of the second largest newspaper in Japan, Asahi Shimbun. The paper dedicated the whole top page for the project on 13th of May 2019, 2 months after we opened the website. We are still receiving E-mails from TV producers who want to create documentaries about the homeless creating snapshots. As a result, we acquired 20 million pageviews online and reached 1 million people offline. The exposures were worth 3,500,000JPY, which corresponds to 330,000 U.S. dollars. The huge fuzz raised the awareness of the issues of homeless people living in Japan, let people talk on SNSs about the issues. As a result, the number of donation to the NPO, which supports homeless people, increased after we opened the online shop.