We wanted this to be the most fun way to donate to Comic Relief ever.

So we developed a digital ‘Swear Jar’ app that caught people when they swore and sent a donation to Comic Relief. It turned people’s bad habits into good deeds.

The Swear Jar app, which was linked to people’s bank accounts via PayPal, automatically fined users every time they used bad language.

It worked by identifying and tallying up the amount of times people swore, donating 20p to Comic Relief every time they used a filthy word. The app used voice recognition technology from Google during the listening sessions which lasted for a maximum of ten minutes.

With 42 swear words listed in the app, Brits were given plenty of opportunities to contribute to Comic Relief in a way like never before.

Our implementation strategy was all about aligning the owned and earned channels, including influencers – to go live at the same time. We knew this would help us with visibility in the app store.

The ‘Swear Jar’ app launched on March 16th on social media, with a hilarious montage of BBC bloopers and celebs swearing like troopers with their own colourful message of support.

Celebrities including Ricky Gervais, Renee Zellweger, Bill Nighy and Stephen Fry then helped spread the word.

We also got other celebrities to take part in our very own Swear Jar Challenge. Rufus Hound kicked the challenge off by swearing as much as possible in 20 seconds and nominating his celebrity friends to do the same. We even got a mention on prime-time BBC TV on the Graham Norton Show.

- 11k+ app downloads in first week

- 50m+ combined reach (36m+ on social)

- £73.3 million raised by Comic Relief 2017 (up 33% from 2016)