Winners & Shortlists

SPOT 4 SALE

TitleSPOT 4 SALE
BrandDEPAUL UK
Product/ServiceHOMELESSNESS CHARITY
Category A04. AMBIENT MEDIA: LARGE SCALE
Entrant Company PUBLICIS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency PUBLICIS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Andy Bird Publicis London Executive Creative Director
Jason Moussalli Publicis London Creative
Adam Balogh Publicis London Creative
Will Arnold/Baker Publicis London Managing Director
Matt Gainsford Publicis London Account Manager
Anthony Harris Publicis London Strategist
Louis De La Moriniere Publicis London Strategist
Debbie Burke Publicis London Operations Director
Colin Hickson Publicis London Agency Executive Producer
Simon Frost NA Editor

The Brief

As a small charity that looks after young homeless people, Depaul UK don’t have the money to invest in large-scale campaigns. Our brief was to heighten awareness of the charity through any means possible, within a very tight budget. Our target demographic was 18-35 year olds; there is particularly low awareness of Depaul UK in this demographic, and they are one of the most desensitised groups to homelessness.

Creative Execution

Every night in the UK, thousands of young people have to sleep rough, yet when Apple launches a new iPhone, thousands of other young people choose to. Our idea points out this irony using a very original medium. This idea is particularly appropriate to Depaul UK because it’s a charity that helps young people. In today’s world where young people are increasingly more connected, the people Depaul UK helps are increasingly disconnected and left on the outside of society.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Our desired outcome was a raise in awareness of the charity and to drive traffic to depauluk.org. Our idea was to piggyback the press attention we knew the launch of the new Apple iPhone 6 would receive and direct this attention towards to Depaul UK. We did this by reserving a spot in the queue outside London’s flagship Apple Store and auctioning this spot on eBay.

Results

Results of the stunt far exceeded expectations. Not only was £570 pounds raised for Depaul UK, enough to keep a young person off the streets for 47 nights, traffic increased to the website 300% overnight. The stunt gained incredible traction, being written about on social media, blogs, national press, and international news sites. In total it generated well over £3,500,000 in terms of earned media (calculated on editorial ad rates) and raised the profile of Depaul UK online by 5700%. It did all this at a cost of zero pounds.