2010 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Profits outweighed investment many times over. Since this piece of work was done for charity and the costs involved were negligible, the response was measured in terms of increased hits on www.takemyjunkuae.com and the actual things collected. The site not only received increased hits every day, but we managed to fill our client’s warehouse to full capacity within just two weeks. A simple but innovative placement of our message is what led to widespread buzz about this campaign, even leading to a Take My Junk Facebook Fan page.

Creative Execution

Buying dumpsters would be expensive, so we rented them at a nominal charge from a local waste management company. They were happy to contribute to a good cause. We transformed the dumpsters into rich, ornate treasure chests using inexpensive vinyl stickers, and placed them in high income areas of Dubai. To further reduce costs and increase exposure, we used pick-up trucks that our client already owned and kept changing the location of the dumpsters. They became our moving media space. By choosing dumpsters that had just the right shape to be converted into treasure chests, we turned them into an effective medium for charity. It not only communicated our message in an attractive way, but also instantly provided space for donation and a call-back number. For a change, we literally brought the medium to the doorsteps of our audience and simplified the otherwise cumbersome process of giving junk away.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our client, a Dubai-based non-profit charity called ‘Take My Junk’ runs a service that picks up and distributes barely used items to less fortunate people in a neighbouring Emirate, Ajman. We had to build awareness about this charity with a limited media spend. Our target audience was mainly high-income residents of Dubai living in rented homes who tend to junk perfectly useful things into garbage dumpsters without a second thought. These people are willing to donate to a social cause, but just don’t know how and where. So we decided to actually place our message where everyone goes to throw their junk – the garbage dumpster. This would catch them at the right moment and encourage them to send their unwanted things to charity instead.