This whole project was created as an art project not as an advertising one. It is inspired from art, from Hieronymus Bosch's work and painted by a famous Romanian artist - Raluca Bararu.

It is also a theatrical display of talent since all the people in the fresco are known actors from the best known independent theatre in Bucharest:

https://www.unteatru.ro/

The idea was to create a painting of the Romanian reality that could be displayed in all kind of media and carry on the campaign's message. Every part of the painting, taken separately, is also a painting in itself.

When lockdown hit, birthdays were cancelled. So, we got a brief from Galantom to promote their “Donate your Birthday” initiative – an initiative that aggregates hundreds of social causes one can donate his/her birthday to. Through Galantom, people could still celebrate, keep friends close and do good when it was most needed. We had to let people know that the super power of their birthday in the “new normal” was to celebrate it by donating it.

Objectives:

? Initiative awareness: We needed to unite and help doctors, people & society in fighting the disease while keeping an eye to all the other weak points in our society that got worse, just like in a Hieronymus Bosch painting: domestic violence increased, illegal trees cuts flourished, arts were affected. Daily life stories needed a rewriting in a positive way.

? Increase: number of fundraising pages by 50%, donations, total value of donations

In building the campaign, we started from a very powerful observation: the best day of the year for some (their birthday) is still the worst day for many around them.

During lockdown, these things got worse making the daily painting look a lot like a Hieronymus Bosch fresco: more illegal tree cuts, huge challenges for the health system, unemployed artists, corruption, less access to education. And birthdays were cancelled.

People wanted and needed to know all the ways they could help and one of them was by donating their birthday to a cause and repaint the awful reality. They could not only still celebrate, but also do good and keep their friends close.

Friends would donate for the cause one chooses instead of buying gifts and the stories in the fresco would be rewritten in the digital activation. Together, we could still celebrate and repaint the Bosch like reality.

Everyone's daily picture is ultimately the same, even on birthdays, when still lots of bad things happen around.

But it's also your birthday that can "save the day" for the others around. The birthday that you can still celebrate even during lockdown by giving it a deeper meaning and purpose. By donating your birthday, you can #rewritethestory to ultimately change the painting we are all living in.

The strategy was to let more and more people know that in times when birthdays seemed to be cancelled, they could actually still keep their friends and beliefs close and celebrate differently.

We took 9 core social causes listed on the Galantom platform and created a Hieronymus Bosch like fresco in which we portrayed the Romanian daily reality. In the middle of the painting, a birthday was happening to illustrate that this cruel reality is there during your birthday.

Starting from the fresco, we developed a digital video that was later broadcasted for free by the biggest Romanian TV station, PRO TV. The video told people they could still celebrate their birthdays in lockdown, gathering their friends around to change the painting we are all living in today and #rewritethestory.

Every part of the painting, illustrating one single cause, became a targeted video ad or an Insta story for its dedicated cause.

The full painting with the possibility to travel within and get statistics for every cause was displayed on an interactive format, on a dedicated website.

From April to August 2020.

7th of April and 20th of August 2020:

? 1278 – total fundraising pages created ( 97,53% increase vs. previous year, same period)

? 901.189 lei – total value of donations (81.52% increase vs previous year, same period)

? 7887 donations (70.44% increase vs previous year, same period)

o 1.978.021 impressions

o 391.351 reach

o 377.308 engagement

o more than 1 million media reach

Hundreds of influencers donated their birthdays during the campaign. After the campaign, this behaviour to donate your birthday on Galantom is still increasing and has become a trend.