With literally fewer than 24 hours to develop, produce, and ship :30 broadcast communications, we had to focus on creating the strongest emotional pull with extremely limited production time. The traditional approach would have been to focus on the destruction and devastation to motivate people to give, however, we chose to highlight resilience, optimism, courage and tenacity and created an emotional connection between those affected and those who had the power to help. We combined compelling visuals with iconic tracks to create narratives that were not about destroyed property, but rather about people coming together to help one another.

For each hurricane, Harvey, Irma and Maria, we were briefed and responded with concepts within hours. We quickly aligned to an approval and went right into production, working through the night. We sifted through Associated Press and Getty images to arrive at the most inspiring and selected and licensed iconic tracks, including “Lean on Me” and “Stand by Me”. In each case, a spot was briefed, produced, shipped and on air within 24 to 48 hours.

When Walmart’s match goal for Harvey fundraising was met within 36 just hours, the brand wanted to deepen its relationship with its customers by thanking those who donated, while also honoring the courage of the people of Texas. We created a :30 spot featuring the poem titled, “That’s Texas” narrated by Kyle Chandler, best known as Coach Taylor, the beloved lead character in the Texas-based television drama, Friday Night Lights.

For hurricane Harvey we reached the matching goal of $10 million, yielding a combined $15 million donation, within just 36 hours of the campaign launch. Even after the match goal was met, customers continued to donate and together in total, over $53 million in cash and product donations were raised by Walmart and its customers. Across all three relief campaigns, Harvey, Irma and Maria, this work drove $43 million in customer donations.

We also measured the effectiveness of the :30 spots via the Advertising Benchmark Index (ABX). Each ad is rated by a consumer panel based on 15 variables with a score of 100 equaling “average effectiveness.” The Harvey matching campaign :30 ranked in the top 2% of 125,000 ABX-tested ads.

The spot scored:

262 in reputation (vs.122 ABX average)

184 in likability (vs.122 ABX average)

188 intent to take action (vs.109 ABX average)

In response to the three hurricanes that hit the United States in one month’s time, we created emotional :30 spots with a singular objective: drive people to donate cash through Walmart’s campaign to support relief efforts. Through this work we drove $43 million in customer giving and created immense goodwill for the Walmart brand.

Our creative and media strategy needed to achieve three things: 1) raise mass awareness of the fund raising campaign quickly, 2) motivate customers to take action, and 3) provide clear directions to donate.

Because this was about gaining immediate mass awareness, we worked quickly to align the most high-profile inventory in the marketplace across TV and paid social to generate mass awareness of Walmart’s efforts and encourage participation. We prioritized live moments like National NFL, World Series, prime-time, and timely news programming as well as integrations with Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Fallon.

Creatively, we made the strategic decision to focus on creating strong emotional connections to the people who were affected by the hurricanes, but within the context of hope and optimism with themes of generosity, tenacity, and resilience. The emotional appeal was followed with a clear, simple direct call to donate.

In August hurricane Harvey hit Texas off guard, delivering 140 mph wind gusts and over a year’s worth of rain in a few days. The storm caused $125 billion in damages, affecting over 13 million people. In the days following the storm, rescue organizations were in great need of cash donations to fund rescue missions and provide basic necessities. Walmart was prepared to donate tens of millions of dollars, but saw an opportunity to amplify the impact of its donation by engaging its customers.

Research has shown that offering a matching donation increases the odds that an individual will donate by 22%. With that in mind, Walmart decided to match consumer donations 2:1, meaning that for every dollar donated, Walmart would match it with two. But in order for this approach to be successful, Walmart needed to create awareness of the program and drive consumers with a strong call-to-action.