8UO: Working Overtime. Voluntarily.

Send a postcard to a child without a home address, hand over a business card which belongs to a professional drug dealer, spread an interactive flyer with the image of a child holding a box where you can choose if it is a lunchbox or a package of cocaine…

These are some of the ideas created while brainstorming for the Juconi foundation, a foundation that gets street children off the street. Juconi works with children from Latin America (focus mainly on Columbia) and is characterized by Unesco with one of the most effective method of approaching street children providing them a better future.

Juconi was one of the foundations joining 8UO better known as ‘working 8 hours late’) an initiative of the ‘Nieuwe Garde’ (-‘the New Guard’) which was held on Friday the 28th of March in the former Caballero factory in The Hague. Also in Rotterdam, Groningen and Arnhem collaborations were made and worked overtime for foundations like Greenpeace and Red Cross.

After some drinks and a good meal the creative minded were divided to groups and escorted to their working space where an introduction round was held. As everybody introduced themselves the foundations clarifies the case and the problem they are facing, and like a lot of foundations like Juconi donations necessary. How can Juconi get more donations and create brand awareness?

The foundation indicates on a promotional campaign like flyers, banners , newsletter and then leaves us to our first round for some lucidity and possible brainstorm. At first we clarify their goal; which is creating more donations. We ask ourselves how the foundation wants to reach their potential ‘customers’ and why they are choosing classic and familiar ways to reach their target group. The answer to that question is that a promotional campaign proves to work and everybody knows this kind of advertizing, it is well known fact. But it is a well known fact as well that this instrument is widely used, flyer holders are overloaded and you have to find more ways of how to create your awareness. Stickers? Please.

We want to create a buzz, and in this short time the AIDA method is a great thing to create and categorize new ideas. For those who are new to this, AIDA stands for creating an Attraction which should create an Interest which should make a Desire bringing it back to an Action.

So how do we create more brand awareness, how do we stimulate the contact between the foundation, their clients and their potential customers. You can think of a wide range of ideas like flying those children to The Netherlands putting and throwing them on the biggest shopping street here, insane? Yes, but it would definitely result into attention creating awareness by the shocking effect which could reach television and newspaper without paying for it. Shocking with a blink…?

Interactive Flyers, a ‘real’ video on the movie theatre, exaggerate the problem, make it humoristic…