Pro Bono Campaigns

WPP companies produce hundreds of pro bono campaigns for good causes every year. This work is worth more than a cash donation. It helps charities recruit new members, raise awareness and further their campaigns. Many of our pro bono relationships are long-standing partnerships, helping a chosen charity or good cause over several areas. In 2008 WPP companies produced pro bono campaigns worth a total of £10.3 million.

Here you can find recent examples of our pro bono campaigns in each of these seven areas.

Local
Education
Health
Environment
Arts
Abuse
Other

Local Communities

Campaign: "Supporting the Homeless in London"
Client: The Whitechapel Mission
Office: BDG Workfutures UK

Campaign: "ELBA identity re-launch"
Client: East London Business Alliance
Office: Coley Porter Bell UK

Education

Campaign: "Go Back to School"
Client: UNICEF Argentina
Office: JWT Buenos Aires

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Each year, 750,000 Argentinean secondary school students drop out and three out of ten teenagers that start secondary school never finish. UNICEF enlisted JWT Argentina to help with this problem in order to increase secondary school enrollment level by 20%.

JWT developed an integrated campaign across traditional and non-traditional channels. In the weeks running up to the start of the school year, large scale banners and posters both online and outdoors invited the spectator to do the math to find out the days left until the beginning of the school year. In other places, they contained misspelt words that caught the attention of passers-by.

The power of the campaign idea encouraged both the President and the Minister of Education to join the project and commit significant media investment. Other media, film and entertainment companies quickly followed suit. The result was over US$4,000,000 worth of production and media donated to the cause. Most importantly, the campaign delivered a 46% school enrollment, 26% over the initial target.

Campaign: "Helping Students with Learning Difficulties"
Client: The Janus School
Office: G2 Direct and Digital US

Campaign: "Improving literacy among US children"
Client: Ad Council and the Library of Congress
Office: The Geppetto Group New York

Health

Campaign: "Rubber Ducky Derby"
Client: Children’s Hospital and Research Centre of Oakland
Office: Y&R San Francisco

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The Children’s Hospital and Research Centre of Oakland treats thousands of children each year regardless of their family’s ability to pay. The hospital sought to boost attendance and contributions to its annual fund raising event, the Rubber Ducky Derby, in order to fund a major retrofit in 2013.

Y&R San Francisco helped give the event a new identity reaching out to a broader and more affluent audience. They helped create a new interactive website allowing visitors to create their own personalised rubber ducky that they could send to their friends to enlist their support. A low cost TV advert, three viral videos and guerrilla tactics, such as placing rubber ducks in public fountains, helped raise awareness of the event and encouraged people to visit the website.

As a result of this aggressive marketing campaign, worth $200,000, attendance to the event was tripled, website traffic increased by 179%, and most importantly donations reached over $100,000, setting the pace to deliver their 2013 business goals.

Campaign: "Conquering cancer, in our lifetime"
Client: The Princess Margaret Hospital
Office: Y&R Toronto

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The Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) is a recognised international leader in cancer treatment and research. It houses many of the top cancer doctors in the world who are leading the way in numerous fields, including cancer stem cell research and image guided radiation. While this was well known to insiders of the medical world, PMH did not have the recognition it deserved from other stakeholders, affecting its fundraising efforts.

Y&R Toronto helped PMH develop a clear and powerful marketing campaign worth $222,000 Canadian dollars whose core message would be that cancer could and would be conquered “in our life time”. This allowed the hospital to receive the recognition it deserves as one of the top 5 cancer research institutions in the world and increased its fundraising abilities.

Campaign: "It's stupid not to know"
Client: Transatlantic Partners Against Aids
Office: Ogilvy Group Russia

Campaign: "Harmful effects of smoking"
Client: Government of Taiwan
Office: Bates 141 Taiwan

Campaign: "Increasing the profile of the Austria Red Cross"
Client: The Red Cross
Office: Ogilvy Austria

Campaign: "Healmet-wearing awareness campaign"
Client: Asia Injury Prevention Foundation
Office: Ogilvy & Mather, Ogilvy PR Worldwide and OgilvyOne, Vietnam

Campaign: "Understanding Coeliac Disease"
Client: Fondazione Celiachia
Office: Ogilvy Italy

Campaign: "Improving access to anti-retroviral therapy"
Client: CIAI
Office: Ogilvy & Mather Italy

Campaign: "Supporting medical aid in Sudan"
Client: Médecins Sans Frontières
Office: Grey Amsterdam

Environment

Campaign: "Help save the planet - ride, don’t drive"
Client: The Advertising Council in partnership with The Environmental Defence Fund
Office: Ogilvy New York

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In September 2008 Ogilvy commissioned New York artist Joshua Allen Harris to create a sculpture of a mother polar bear and her cub using recyclable plastic bags. The sculptures, which initially look like street litter, are brought to life by the air rushing through the subway grates when a train goes past. As soon as the train departs, the bears collapse and “die”, urging people to help combat climate change by making use of public transport, carpooling and cycling.

Short videos of the polar bears were distributed to TV stations and broadcast nationwide. They were also posted on YouTube, where they received over 60,000 views. The campaign, worth $40,000 in production and $329,010 in paid media, has been successful in increasing awareness among American’s to “ride, not drive”.

Campaign: "Wunderman Greensaver"
Office: Wunderman London

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In 2008 Wunderman London developed a screensaver to encourage their employees to switch off their monitors at night, reducing their carbon footprint and saving energy. The screensaver activates after 5 minutes of idle time transforming computer screens into everyday objects associated with high energy use.

It resulted in an immediate drop in the number of monitors left on overnight – from approximately 60% to 5% - reducing their CO2 emissions by 58 tonnes a year. The “greensaver” cost £9,000 to develop, but resulted in annual energy savings of £18,000. It is now available for everyone to download for free at http://www.thegreensaver.co.uk/

Campaign: "Change the World for Fifteen Bucks"
Client: We Are What We Do
Office: Y&R Wellington

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Often environmental issues are seen as too big for people to do anything about. We Are What We Do, a movement that started in the UK in 2004, challenges this idea by inspiring people to do small every day actions that can result in big changes.

In February 2008 Y&R Wellington helped the movement launch its book, “Change the World For Fifteen Bucks”, which includes 50 world changing but simple environmental and social actions.

The Y&R team managed to obtain free media space and resources worth $619,203 New Zealand dollars from 28 of their production and media suppliers. The campaign ran for three weeks in early 2008, helped sell 780 books in the first few days, and reached the average New Zealander 25 times.

Campaign: "Earth Hour"
Client: WWF
Office: WPP Companies worldwide

Campaign: "Tale of the Northern End"
Client: WWF
Office: Ogilvy & Mather Japan

probono_environment_yandrparissurfriderfoundation

Campaign: "Ocean Initiative"
Client: Surfrider Foundation
Office: Y&R Paris

Campaign: "Save the Mediterranean bluefin Tuna"
Client: WWF
Office: Ogilvy UK

Campaign: "Fundraising for new forests"
Client: WWF
Office: JWT Jakarta

probono_environment_concern_india_ogilvy

Campaign: "Encouraging Recycling in India"
Client: Concern India
Office: Ogilvy & Mather Bangalore

Campaign: "Preventing Illegal Trafficking"
Client: PeunPa Foundation
Office: JWT Thailand

Campaign: "Climate Change Awareness"
Client: Legambiente
Office: Grey Italy

Campaign: "Reducing Air Pollution in China"
Client: WWF
Office: Ogilvy & Mather Beijing

Arts

Campaign: "Fundraising for historic monuments"
Client: German Foundation for the Preservation of Historic Monuments
Office: Ogilvy & Mather Frankfurt

Campaign: "Visual identity for New York museum"
Client: The Museum for African Art
Office: Ogilvy, New York

Alcohol & Drug Abuse

Campaign: "Drug prevention in Singapore"
Client: National Council Against Drug Abuse
Office: Bates 141 Singapore

Campaign: "Preventing drink driving"
Client: Malteser Ambulance Service
Office: Ogilvy & Mather Frankfurt

Other

Campaign: "Help Child Soldiers"
Client: War Child Canada
WPP company: Hill & Knowlton, Toronto

In 2008 War Child Canada, a charity which supports children in war zones, launched an intentionally deceptive and provocative campaign to call attention to the estimated 300,000 children around the world who have been forced or drafted into armed groups.

Partnering with War Child’s advertising agency, John st., H&K Toronto’s digital team helped develop a digital strategy for their ‘Help Child Soldiers’ campaign. The team used various media channels, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and blogging sites. They also contacted influential Canadian bloggers and taught War Child Canada staff how to tweet.

The ‘Help Child Soldiers’ campaign was a success. Just two weeks after it began the ‘Help Child Soldiers’ video was the number one featured video on YouTube.com’s global home page. Traffic doubled to the charity’s website (www.warchild.ca) and 1,000 people signed the campaign petition. Most importantly, donations to War Child Canada increased by $50,000 Canadian dollars, year over year.

Campaign: "Making sport a part of every child's life"
Client: Right to Play
Office: Y&R Toronto

Campaign: "Raising awareness of the RSPCA's work"
Client: RSPCA
Office: The Campaign Palace and MediaCom Australia

Campaign: "Children's Rights in India"
Client: The Zuster Jeanne Devos Fund
Office: LDV United Belgium

Campaign: "Eliminating Poverty"
Client: United Nations
Office: Grey Worldwide

Campaign: "Fundraising for Angolan children"
Client: Save the Children
Office: Grey Copenhagen

Campaign: "Fundraising for Barnardos"
Client: Barnardos Australia
Office: OgilvyOne and Ogilvy Interactive, Australia

Campaign: "Youth volunteering in Asia"
Client: National Youth Council
Office: Grey Singapore