Cannes Lions

HOMELESS YOUTH CHARITY

PUBLICIS LONDON, London / DEPAUL / 2010

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Overview

Entries

Credits

OVERVIEW

Execution

We put a young homeless person on the iPhone.

For 3 days, the fate of ‘iHobo’ is in your hands. Treated well, he thrives. Left alone, un-cared for, his inevitable decline into hard drugs usage plays out on the screen. After living with him - and building a sense of responsibility for him - for 3 days, the app prompts you to donate with one click.

To build initial awareness, i-Phones with the iHobo app pre-installed were distributed to influential technology journalists and bloggers.

We made the app free to download. And instead of asking for donations within the app (which is restricted by Apple anyway), or directing people to a website (that may not be mobile compatible), we introduced a simple (but revolutionary) one click text donation mechanism.

Outcome

Within just 5 days, iHobo had risen to become the Number One most downloaded app in the UK.

With over 20,000 downloads a day.

Jonathan Waddingham a digital strategist at JustGiving – the world’s largest and most trusted fundraising platform – said: “iHobo actually makes users feel something (whilst getting around donation restrictions). That is revolutionary. It’s a fantastic charity app.”

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