Small Change Makes Big Difference In Terrific Mobile-Digital OOH Screen Campaign

February 27, 2012 by Dave Haynes

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Love this. Clever. Visually engaging. Crosses platforms. Highly social. And best of all it is doing something meaningful, as opposed to trying to get people to buy stuff they don’t need or junk food they shouldn’t eat.

The Microloan Foundation, a UK charity providing small business loans to women in sub-Saharan Africa, launched an innovative live donation digital billboard campaign at Westfield London, Shepherds Bush this past weekend.

Created by DLKW Lowe, the campaign asked the public to donate via SMS to activate the creative on screen and receive a personalised on-screen thank you message.

The screens showed an incomplete image of a smiling African woman constructed entirely from pennies. Users were invited to participate with the message: “Your small change can make a big difference in Africa. See How. Text CHANGE and your NAME to 70777” users then donated a fixed amount by text and each donation caused a new batch of coins to fall into place on the poster image until eventually the picture of the smiling woman was complete.

Completed images appeared on penniesforlife.org.uk where donors can look up their contribution and see their coins tagged within the image. Donors can then share their contribution with friends via Twitter, Facebook or email.

Digital production and technical build was coordinated by Grand Visual, with SMS monitoring and integration managed through their OpenLoop platform. 3D motion graphics were produced by Absolute with website design and build by United Studios.

Dan Dawson, Digital Director at Grand Visual commented: “The genius of this campaign is in its immediacy and responsiveness. It encourages the public to participate in the ad itself and personally thanks them for their involvement. Online assets extend the life of the campaign and builds awareness via social networks.”

The MicroLoan Foundation were awarded £50k worth of media spend for the idea in last years ‘The Art of Outdoor Digital Competition’ hosted by Ocean Outdoor.

The campaign ran from the 25th – 26th February 2012 as a weekend domination on Ocean Outdoor’s Eat Street digital poster site.

Nice program. Well executed, it seems. And great cause.