The money raised will be used to open a shelter near the biggest oncology hospital in Romania, with a capacity of 10.000 accommodations per year and others more will follow.

This means more chances for children to access treatment and heal, as 70% of cancer cases come from poor families.

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THE IDEA:

A 24/7 SOLIDARITY DEMONSTRATION

To raise awareness we wanted to transport the hospitals' reality to somewhere it can't be ignored. So we placed an empty hospital chair behind the window of an down-town gallery and invited Romania to a solidarity gesture, while live-streaming everything: occupy the chair 24/7 until the money is raised.

A CAMPAIGN CREATED TOGETHER WITH PEOPLE

To encourage people to become part of this campaign by donating and subscribing to sit on the chair, we invited influencers to donate their time and help spread the message. Together with actors, singers, bloggers and other public figures in Romania, we created an online video about these parents' struggle and how they became welded to the chair that nobody wants to sit on.

In a famous gallery in Bucharest we recreated the atmosphere of a hospital room, placing an empty chair next to a bed. The ensemble was visible from the street and to make it stand out even more, on the outside we placed a display that would update in real time the amount donated. What happened in the interior of the gallery, was live-streamed 24/7 on Youtube for everyone to acknowledge it.

Between 3-26 November 2017, people changed shifts relentlessly, encouraging more and more to participate. With the help of 636 people, the chair remained occupied day and night, making it the biggest solidarity gesture ever seen in Romania. The gallery became a living outdoor showcasing a hurtful reality through its windows.

60 celebrities and influencers, from different areas joined the campaign and sat on the chair next to common people, redefining the meaning of togetherness beyond age, status or religion.

IMPACT:

The campaign changed the SMS donation campaigns benchmark in Romania by raising the biggest amount of money in a record period of time. A shelter able to accommodate 30.000 people a year will soon open and others are to be built.

Target: 200.000 euros

Raised: 500.000 euros in 3 weeks and 1.000.000 euros by now & counting

RESPONSE:

2.000 people registered to take a seat

240.000 reactions in social media

IMPRESSIONS: 35 million

200 different news on TV, online and radio, 10% TV prime time news with a minimum length of 3 minutes and a 15 minutes TV story, within the social show with the highest audience in Romania.

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE:

Engaging people not only to donate (1 in 10.000 SMS is a donation in Romania) but to give their own time and be the campaign.

AWARENESS:

2.000.000 online video views

66% organic reach of total Romanian Facebook population

Take a Seat was a fundraising campaign offering the audience an immersive and profound experience. Though a live experience, people were transported in the universe of a parent whose child is suffering from cancer.

By recreating an oncology hospital room in an art gallery facing a crowded Bucharest boulevard, we called people to take a seat on a hospital chair. Because a chair is the only accommodation that hospitals can provide for parents who travel for their children to receive treatment in oncology centres.

To raise the 200.000 Euros needed, the campaign's main fundraising tool was the SMS donation. It was a high-stakes attempt considering that only 1 in 10.000 SMS represents a donation in Romania. Given the ambitious target and people's low engagement towards donations, we had to go for a totally different approach: MAKING THEM FEEL THEY ARE A PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER.

Most of the times, donation campaigns aim for people's compassion. But we wanted to make people feel empowered, turning the SMS into a tool they could use to build the alternative system that Romania needed.

We also gave people access to the campaign itself, engaging them in the making. Aside from donating, sitting on that chair in public display meant a powerful personal statement.

Core target: reactive civil society, people who militate for what they believe in, 25-45 y.o, urban.

In Romania, over 70% of children diagnosed with cancer come from families with limited financial resources who cannot afford the costs of transportation and accommodation. This is the main cause for children being diagnosed late, treatments being postponed or interrupted. Therefore, in Romania, only 30% to 60% of those children survive, compared to 75% in Western Europe.

MagiCamp is an NGO whose mission is to build houses near oncology centres in Romania so that parents of children suffering from cancer wouldn't have to live on hospital chairs, the only accommodation available for them.

MagiCamp asked us to create a SMS donation campaign that would raise 200.000 Euros for a house near the biggest oncology hospital in order to ease access to treatment for poor families.

The campaign budget: 0.

Challenge: A very low rate in SMS donations (1 in 10.000 SMS is a donation in Romania).