Title	THERE'S ANOTHER SIDE TO THE STORY
Brand	DEPAUL UK
Product/Service	YOUTH HOMELESSNESS CHARITY
Category	C08. Charities, Public Health, Safety & Awareness Messages
Entrant Company	PUBLICIS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency	PUBLICIS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Andy Bird	Publicis London	Executive Creative Director
Ben Smith	Publicis London	Copywriter
Dan Kennard	Publicis London	Art Director
Will Arnold-baker	Publicis London	Business Director
Tom Froggett	Publicis London	Account Manager
Ant Harris	Publicis London	Planner
Louis De La Moriniere	Publicis London	Planner
Debbie Burke	Publicis London	Head Of Operations
Steve Mcfarlane	Publicis London	Executive Agency Producer
Greg Collier	Publicis London	Agency Producer
Ed Page	Publicis London	Agency Producer
Andy Breese	Publicis London	Head Of Art And Design
Mark Wesley	Publicis London	Photographer
Dave Stansfield	Publicis London	Designer
Claire Lillis	Publicis London	Art Buyer
Sarah Clifford	Publicis London	Art Buyer

The Brief

Recruiting people to donate their spare room. Depaul’s Nightstop project gets young people off the street and into the spare rooms of volunteers. With a 300% rise in demand for Depaul’s services during the past year, it needed more volunteers – but Depaul’s own research shows that half of people are anxious about perceived dangers like violence or robbery. In fact, 87% wouldn’t take a homeless person in. In reality, volunteers almost never encounter problems and find the experience positive. We aimed to change preconceptions and show the benefits of volunteering – encouraging people to register their interest via text message.

Campaign Success

Advertising on street corners where young people sleep rough. The creative execution uses street corners in areas where Depaul has an urgent need of spare rooms. These corners are the very places homeless young people could end up without the intervention of volunteers. A poster is placed either side of the corner: the messaging on the first side sums up the negative preconceptions people have about giving up their spare room to a homeless youth. But when both sides are read together these preconceptions transform – showing the positive reality of becoming a Nightstop volunteer and encouraging them to text our promotional number. The ads aim to empathise with the concerns of our audience, before helping them see the issue from a new perspective. The work ran in-situ on six sites across London, with the aim of it being shared online.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Helping young people turn a corner for real. The campaign achieved significant global coverage. It appeared live on BBC TV News, national radio and on over 70 blogs. In addition, it was trending at number two on the Reddit homepage with around 4 million views. We generated 69 million media impressions in the campaign period and around 6 million people directly viewed the work. On a £0 media spend, total earned media value was estimated at £1,589,857. Depaul’s web traffic increased 600% on the previous week. Most importantly the total number of new volunteer enquiries increased by 6100% on the previous month. If all enquirers become volunteers, it would be equivalent to increasing Nightstop’s London capacity by 50%. Given that volunteers generally offer spare rooms for several years, this step change will help many young people turn a corner for real.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Activating volunteering through a text message promotion. This campaign has a clear, promotional call to action. It asks people to send a text message to register their interest in helping a young, homeless person, by offering them a spare room for a night or two. The work is also brought to life on street corners – the very places where homeless young people find themselves without accommodation, creating a strong link between the issue the ad is addressing and the people who can solve it.