Engaging an untapped audience. War Child.
We’ve been fortunate enough to work with the great team at War Child, who luckily for us don’t shy away from bold ideas. Since first working together, we’ve created two of their flagship campaigns and helped engage an entirely new audience, resulting in their best performing online campaign in the charity’s 25-year history.
INITIAL BRIEF.
War Child wanted a video to raise awareness and advocacy of their cause amongst a younger, more tech savvy audience, whilst standing apart from the more stereotypical charity video.
SOLUTIONS.
Our first solution was ‘Duty of Care’, a powerful, thought provoking film that subverted the hugely popular games like Call of Duty, by replacing the heavily-armed soldier with a vulnerable child called Nima.
The campaign gained support on a global scale with Influential politicians, decision-makers and celebrities sharing ‘Duty of Care’ and the accompanying petition which reached 22,000 signatures.
In addition the idea opened up an entirely new audience (gamers) as the film was shared amongst gaming communities and influencers. As conversations started between War Child and gaming studios TOAD were asked to create a follow up video specifically for the gaming industry.
Our response was “Armistice”, a cross platform idea that united gamers on a global scale. The campaign empowers players of violent games to show their advocacy for War Child’s cause, through nonviolent gameplay and purchasable peaceful activations.
Working with game studios, “Armistice” has been engineered to work in a variety of different ways; from adding a non-violent in-game mode and purchasable content such as stickers to donation buttons and sponsored screens. For example, in Verdun 1914, creators Blackmill decided to honour the 1914 Christmas truce by giving players the option of having a snowball fight amongst the soldiers.
The multichannel campaign presence has been felt throughout the gaming sector, most notably on Twitch, XBox and PlayStation. Game studios have embraced the idea and use it as a platform to remind their community that war is real, and not fun. It’s become a platform to show their social conscious and work with War Child to raise awareness for the devastating effect war has on children. Influencers on Twitch shared the campaign with their fans, while playing “Armistice” enabled games. While the gaming media heradled it is an important innovation and first for the industry.
Now in its third year, Armistice has become an annual event on the gaming calendar and firmly positioned War Child as an established charity in the gaming sector, something they had never considered.
“Armistice has been one of War Child’s best performing campaigns in its 25 year history.”
Elisabeth Little, Head of Corporate Partnership
RESULTS.
$390K Raised
22K Signatures
2.25M Gamers engaged
Opened up an entirely new audience
An established annual event on the gaming calendar
National Fundraising Award winner for Most Innovation Campaign
Cannes Lion & Webby nominations
The Guardian’s top charity video
