Every year at Christmas, OPAP donates money to several welfare institutions and our job was to create awareness about this deed! But while a company’s contribution to people in need is always good news, when it is advertized -especially during the cluttered holiday season- it sounds less charitable and more self involved. Another important factor was the crisis and the need for solidarity that it awakes in all of us. People seemed to need each other more than ever and a gesture, even a simple wish from their fellow anonymous citizen, could make them smile a bit.
We picked up this “trend” and we incorporated it into our campaign. So what we did was find a way to make people participate actively in these donations. We created a 360 campaign that included social media, internet, tv spot, print ads and PR actions around the idea of The Tree of Wishes.
The idea was to create a facebook app where people could upload a wish, send it to a stranger, dedicate it to one of the institutions and in that way choose where OPAP’s contribution would be directed. The Tree of Wishes also worked as a lottery of wishes (OPAP is our national lottery after all!), since you could receive a random wish from a stranger and post it on your wall and feel that not only you are helping people in need but you are also part of a great “conspiracy” of the above mentioned solidarity. The app was promoted by a tv spot featuring people sharing wishes with strangers, print ads, internet banners and of course the “virality” of social media users! The campaign was very successful and the facebook application won a Social Media Award in the category of Best Facebook Apps.
Director: Vardis Marinakis
D.O.P.: Vasilis Klotsotiras