The Hondao Senior-Citizens Welfare-Foundation was determined to raise more money to support elderly care, but the challenge was to prove that the elderly are not incapable, hopeless, and at a dead-end, and is thus a cause worthy of more donations. The strategy was to utilize 'dreams' as a platform to change perceptions, because dreams are defined as future desires and have never been associated with the elderly before, making it new to the public. We executed the plan by motivating 462 elderly around 75-years-old or above who wanted to fulfill their dreams. Additionally, a group of 229 corporate volunteers donated their time. By improving inter-generational dialogue through the event participation of volunteers and collateral communication tools, we succeeded in minimizing the generation gap. However, this was not enough to change the public’s perception. Thus, PR was a vital tool used to reach a massive 40,716,900, and a PR exposure-value worth over US$3.5m. PR played a critical role in successfully changing perceptions, increasing donations and obtaining a government response.

This campaign is appropriate for entry into PR Lions because it addresses the role of PR in the following ways: 1. Attractive PR angles in each event to provoke the media’s interest and create a continual buzz to accelerate the campaign’s impact; 2. Continuous PR efforts including 10 bursts of press releases and 2 bursts of press conferences along with the implementation of each event to maximize coverage and secure campaign momentum during most of the year.

The whole plan ran countrywide, starting from March 29, 2011. The campaign began from doing research and was then released to the media in order to share the elderly’s dreams; this was followed by fulfilling the dreams of all 462 elderly participants, from May 2011 through October 2011, to elicit press angles, supported with bursting PR efforts. We finally ended the campaign by sharing the achievements of the elderly through the first ever elderly dreams come true documentary exhibition in the capital city from November 16-20, 2011. It was introduced through a press conference. The campaign ran for 270 days total through the whole country and we stuck to the original plan without changing anything during the different stages.

Our post-campaign survey indicated that 91% of our respondents had successfully changed their negative beliefs. The total charity donations increased by 24% compared with the previous year - from US$192,825 to US$238,846. The most notable accomplishment of this campaign was the invitation from Taiwan’s President to the welfare foundation’s CEO, asking to discuss current senior-citizen social-welfare issues. In addition, we generated earned-media worth over US$3.5m with an accumulated reach of 40,716,900, and even attracted an American reporter and director for the Discovery Channel, Peter Starr, who arrived in Taiwan to witness the elderly chase their dreams by being grand riders.