Title	GLOBAL 2000 - SHEARING MEANS CARING
Brand	GLOBAL 2000
Product/Service	DONATION RUN
Category	A08. Charities, Public Health & Safety, Public Awareness Messages
Entrant	TBWA\WIEN, AUSTRIA
Idea Creation	TBWA\WIEN, AUSTRIA

Name	Company	Position
Gerda Reichl-Schebesta	TBWA\Wien	ECD
Robert Wohlgemuth	TBWA\Wien	CD
Betty Benedikt	TBWA\Wien	Copywrite
Maik Wollrab	TBWA\Wien	AD

The Campaign

Instead of money, donate your hair. A simple yet radical idea to break out of the conventional donation campaigns, which just ask for your money. With every shaved head, a sponsor donates €100,- for the cancer treatment of the children of Chernobyl. To raise awareness for the cause and the campaign, we used the radical and highly emotional visual of people shaving their heads while looking straight into the camera. The campaign was extended by hundreds of courageous Austrian men and women who also sheared their heads and posted their selfies an Social Media. That way Austria showed solidarity and that the present victims of Chernobyl – although out of sight – are not forgotten.

Campaign Success

The campaign was launched in April 2016 and ran for four weeks. As a kick-off a press-event took place, where brave volunteers donated their hair in front of reporters and celebrities. Each of these hair-donations gathered €1.000,- from sponsors and launched the campaign nation-wide. The striking visuals of people shaving their own heads were spread on TV, newspapers, billboards, magazines, postcards and online. A big part of the media budget was donated by media partners who were excited supporters of the idea: the starting-budget of €40.000,- was multiplied more than three times worth €130.000,-. Microsites gave a detailed description for shaving your head or donating, for the further spreading we used a hashtag for Social Media (fb, instagram, twitter).

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

The Austrians showed amazing solidarity: within 4 weeks we collected hundreds of shaved heads and more than 100.000 Euros: €80.000 came from big donors for the shaved heads, €20.000 from small donors. More than 22.000 people visited the campaign website (unique visits) and informed themselves about shaving their heads and donating money. The campaign multiplied its media budget by generating earned media worth more than €170.000,- and an enormous Social Media impact. But the most important number of all: the donations help to run the hospital for another year and so we helped to save the life of many children.

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

We turned an ordinary donation-drive into a showcase of solidarity: by activating peoples’ helpfulness and their wish to be rewarded for it. We asked people to donate money or to shear their head out of solidarity with sick children in Chernobyl. A sponsor would donate for every baldy head. This question activated hundreds of courageous people who sheared and posted their head and also dozens of sponsors who “paid” for it. The output is impressive in terms of engagement, awareness by people and media, donations and shows how a brand can activate by reaching people’s hearts.

We faced two big challenges: raise awareness for a topic that happened far away and a long time ago, as well as stand out in a saturated market filled with images of suffering children, raising compassion for more local causes. Since these challenges had to be tackled with a very small budget, we chose a unique strategy: we targeted small donors and asked them not for money but for an action that is free of cost but yet priceless. Spread the message by using these donators as multipliers of the campaign and let them be involved in the cause. And: we targeted companies as large donors by “paying” for every courageous head-shearing-act of the small donors.