Animal Rescue Shelter "Trow us a bone"

Dwarfed by bigger charities during a tough economic period, their objective was to create a unique idea for the Sydney Dogs & Cats Home, to boost awareness, donations and dog adoptions. But rather than use a ‘poor me’ charity approach, they decided to entertain people and engage them. This idea was relevant because they created a ‘Wonder Dog’ for a dog’s home, and people love interacting with intelligent animals. The strength of the creative was that it used innovative media to encourage people to donate in a positive way and offer them an immediate reward. In Australia, ‘throw us a bone’ means 'please help us'. They created their own entertaining content, Frankie the Wonder Dog. They pioneered a convergent technology platform that enabled people to interact in real-time with him. People ‘threw’ Frankie a bone via SMS and received an instant dog trick in return. Every bone thrown was a $5 donation. Great results in just three days: • 1327 bones thrown; • 17.4% of people threw two or more times; • 25% of dogs needing homes adopted; • 600% increase in new volunteers; • Over $150,000 in free media from Optus, Inspire, Fairfax, News Limited and JCDecaux. Bronze Cannes Lions Direct Winner.

Agency: M&C Saatchi/Mark Sydney, Australia.