Who: UNICEF Canada, Juniper Park\TBWA and Tam-Tam\TBWA for creative with PHD on media.
What: “Halloween Heroes,” a new fundraising program tied to Halloween. For many Canadians, UNICEF and Halloween were once inextricably connected. That tradition ended in 2006, but has been updated with a modern twist.
When & Where: The awareness campaign to drive engagement and visibility has started, with fundraising running through October. Juniper Park created the website, social assets, an e-mail campaign and online video, all produced by the agency’s in-house production arm Bolt.
How has it been updated: No door-to-door penny boxes, although design elements from those boxes have been brought back. Kids now sign up online, decide where the money they raise will be sent, set a goal and ask for donations by sharing their page. Once the goal is reached they get a Heroes crest and are added to the Hall of Heroes.
Why: For UNICEF this about raising money for the many causes it supports around the world, but it’s also about introducing kids to the concept of giving—to “create a new generation of empathetic and engaged Canadians who embrace their ability to make the world a better place.”
Kids are given a choice about where the money they raise will go, and the site provides some specific examples to make the giving feel more tangible. For example “If you collect $50 towards health essentials, you’re providing 14 bed nets to protect children from malaria-infected mosquito bites.”
Who’s the target: The goal may be to get kids engaged and doing the actual fundraising, and schools are part of the outreach, but the retro styling is clearly intended to connect with the many adult Canadians who remember trick-or-treating with the black and orange cardboard box around their neck—collecting loose change for the disadvantaged, along with candy for themselves. The four characters from the Orange Box are being used to represent the pillars of UNICEF: providing safe water, nutrition, education and health to vulnerable children around the world.
Quote: “The Orange Box and its characters hold a special place in the hearts of Canadians. While the times have changed, UNICEF’s goal to empower Canadian youth around this important cause has not. So to us, it only made sense to reinvent the heroes of yesterday for the new generation.” —Jenny Glover, executive creative director at Juniper Park\TBWA.
