2010 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Dubai is a country of expats, with most people living in rented homes and moving often. Most residents also have high incomes and plenty of options for shopping, and tend to generate a lot of junk in the process. This leads them to throw away perfectly useful things. Our client, a non-profit charity called ‘Take My Junk’ runs a service that picks up and distributes such barely used items to less fortunate people in a neighbouring Emirate, Ajman. Our task was to get the maximum number of people to know about this service and push people to donate.

Creative Execution

People in Dubai actually use garbage dumpsters to trash perfectly usable things in good condition. So the best thing was to grab them exactly at that point. So we placed our ‘treasure chest dumpsters’ in affluent areas for maximum exposure. These dumpsters served a two fold purpose – as an ambient idea that got attention, and as a collection point where people could actually drop smaller items to give away.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

This charity was different. It wasn’t raising funds but just asking people to donate unused goods. So how could we get their attention without spending too much? We rented dumpsters from a local waste management company and used inexpensive vinyl stickers to transform them into rich, ornate ‘treasure chests’. On these dumpsters, we conveyed our message – pushing people to convert their ‘junk’ into someone else’s treasure, by donating it instead of throwing it away. They could either use the dumpster to deposit their junk or call for a pick up right away.

Results

The response was overwhelmingly good. The redressed dumpster got a lot of attention with people either putting their junk in or taking the number down for a pick-up. In just two weeks, we managed to fill our client’s warehouse with donated items that will now find a place in someone else’s home. The number of hits on www.takemyjunkuae.com increased two fold and Take My Junk now also has a Facebook fan page!