Direct > Sectors

THE UNTOUCHABLES

PUBLICIS RUSSIA, Moscow / CITIGROUP / 2017

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Overview

Credits

OVERVIEW

CampaignDescription

Citi, Mastercard together with the agency had to solve two tasks: increase awareness of epidermolysis bullosa and gather donations to BELA Fund. But the disease is so rare and unrelatable, and the media space is so densely saturated with various charities’ asking for support that it is difficult to find a way to capture TA’s interest. So the agency decided to talk about something they can understand: a life without human touch that kids with epidermolysis bullosa have to endure. The team wanted to turn the “no touch” concept upside down: from a stigma to a great way to help.

Without a single touch.

“The Untouchables” is a series of custom-made posters with built-in equipment for contactless payment. Just by waving a bank card or any other contactless payment device in front of the poster, a person could make an instant donation to BELA Fund.

Execution

Before the project, there was no device that would allow automatic contactless payment — normally, there has to be a cashier or someone to input the data for you and initiate the payment. For the donations to truly happen “without a single touch”, Citi and Mastercard had to put together a set of custom-built equipment that would always be alert and ready to accept payments without the need for someone to input any information. The prototype smart poster took about 6 months to put together, test, and get ready for mass production.

Altogether, 50 smart posters were built. We placed them in every Citi branch in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as some of the hottest venues of the two cities: shopping malls, cafes, restaurants, museums, theaters and other public places. The placement began in December 2016, and the venues are in constant rotation in order to ensure maximum coverage.

Outcome

To inform the audience about our smart posters and increase awareness of epidermolysis bullosa we created a short campaign video. The video was shared by over 70 Russian celebrities, including theater and film stars, athletes, TV presenters, and public figures, gaining massive media coverage. With zero media budget, the video was viewed over 4,7 million times and reached more than 62 million people and counting. For the first time ever, epidermolysis bullosa caught public attention, increasing awareness of this rare disease and opening up the dialog on helping the butterfly children.

But most importantly, just in the first weeks of the campaign, the amount of funds raised increased by 144% compared to same period last year.

Relevancy

The Untouchables is a piece of one-to-one direct communication with the target audience that also offers a way to take action instantly. It combines all the classic Attention-Interest-Decision-Action steps: it captures people’s attention and provokes interest with a striking image and a message that describes the problem of epidermolysis bullosa, it makes them reach an immediate decision with the help of a clear call to action, and by means of built-in contactless payment technology, it offers the possibility of immediate action.

Strategy

The TA consists of modern people, urban intellectuals who love helping the less fortunate; they engage in socially relevant dialogs and willingly donate to support different causes. Incidentally, these young people use all the latest technologies — specifically, contactless payment methods. They are active users of various banking apps and utilities to make their lives easier. Now, they received a way to do more than that. They could help those who cannot be touched — without a single touch, just by waving their bank card or any contactless payment device in front of the smart poster.

We placed the posters in the hottest locations around Moscow and St. Petersburg to make sure that they are seen by the largest number of TA. We have also posted our campaign video in all social networks to make sure we reach even those who live outside Moscow and St. Petersburg, spreading the message further.

Synopsis

Citi and Mastercard are global financial institutions that use technologies to impact the way people interact with banking systems. But they are looking to do even more: to use those technologies to actually impact human lives.

Epidermolysis bullosa is a genetic disease that occurs once per 100,000 births. 4,000 children in Russia were born with this untreatable condition. They are called “the butterfly children” because their skin is so fragile that every touch causes pain and damage, leaving them impaired for life.

The problem is, Russian public is practically unaware of this disease. BELA Fund occupies itself with helping butterfly children and their caregivers financially as well as providing educational programs for Russian doctors. However, because of low public awareness, it is very difficult to gather donations for this cause. Therefore, the team was facing two tasks: increase awareness of the condition and raise funds for BELA Fund.

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