Are You Syrious is an association that helps individuals and families who are looking for safe places after being forced to leave their homes. The biggest challenge was to raise donations for schoolchildren refugees, and the task of the agency, Imago Ogilvy, was to devise an original communication campaign for a humanitarian association that would encourage the donor community to help refugee children.
We are talking about the Action – Are You Syrious? campaign, which was ranked among the top 25 at BalCannes 2017, with the creative director of the agency Imago Ogilvy, Mirka Modrinić.
We came up with the idea … wanting to help refugees together with the Are You Syrious? association, especially children. Thinking of how to raise public interest, we realized that most people respond to basic action ads across Croatian media. Buyers are following sales actions, thinking about how to get certain products or services for themselves. We used this ad format for a completely different, more humane message.
The campaign is at the same time subtle criticism of the consumer society and all of us who are willing to allocate money even for unnecessary things, but much less to help those who need it.
Our guiding thought was … we wondered, if the word “action” can motivate us to spend, can it motivate us to help?
During the realization, the biggest problem we encountered was … there were no issues, everything went smoothly, and the agency and outside associates were willing to help bring the campaign to fruition.
The greatest contribution of this campaign was … raising awareness that refugees, especially children, need our help, as well as the awareness of our own consumerism mentality. And, of course, the concrete aid that was collected.
… and it was special because… it conveyed a humane message is in the form of a typical consumer ad campaign.
When it comes to our project, we are most proud … that we could help those who needed it, which made us feel better both as professionals and as people.
If we were to go from scratch now ... we believe we would make this campaign even wider and longer.
Throughout the process, we learned … that we are all extremely motivated when it comes to creative solutions that contribute to the common good. Social responsibility of both agencies and clients are important for motivation and job satisfaction.
What you certainly didn’t know … is that you can also help if you visit the Facebook page of Are You Syrious?
