Bucharest - "Pick a word. Just any. Repeat the word thousands of times. Loud and clear. Then pick another one. And start all over. With every single word you can find in the dictionary. With every saying. And with every phrase. Pick a parent. Not just any. But one with an autistic spectrum disorder child. And think that repetition is his daily routine." This is how the team from Centrade Saatchi & Saatchi engaged a nation into a fundraising campaign for autistic children for client Horia Motoi.
The overall campaign's strategy relied on the fact that repetition is the main learning tool used for helping autistic children overcome their impaired social interaction and communication. The Saatchi & Saatchi team convinced the most important media channels, TV, radio, and press, to get involved. The idea was to repeat part of their usual message several times only to deliver the campaign message at the end: ‘the parents of an autistic child repeat a word thousands of time until the child understands it.' Thus, the learning tool became the campaign's most sustaining mechanism.
Soon after that, social networks carried on the message: Facebook, twitter, bloggers, news feeds. Over the following days, more and more unconventional spokespersons joined the cause: football players, theatre actors, TV celebrities, pop bands and singers, and even the MC Chopper Academy riding the streets of Bucharest.
Results were outstanding: with zero spending, in just a matter of days, earned media reached over 100,000 euros and millions of Romanians heard or read about one of the most effective therapeutic techniques used in fighting autism, and also about the inherent hardships a parent has to face.
See more at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Uvw8akxp97E&feature=endscreen
Credits:
Johan Ohlson, Creative Director
Laura Iane, Creative Group Head
Marius Tianu, Senior Copywriter
Andrei Nica, Copywriter
Bogdan Vintila, Art Director
Vlad Giogu, Art Director
Loredana Barla, Junior Copywriter
Carmen Barda, Group Account Director
Ioana Hurdubelea, Btl Sr. Account Manager
Corina Pisc, Corporate Communication Coordinator
Ramona Tcaciuc Dumitru, Business Unit Director
Denisia Aghiorghitoaie, Social Media Manager