High school friends are forever

The entire idea of the “High school friends are forever” concept was to give an emotional twist to the annual fundraising KFC & Pizza Hut campaign “I want to go to high school” and to create a connection between beneficiaries (children), project ambassadors (bloggers, journalists, VIPs) and customers (donors).

We wanted to tell stories about high school, therefore we invited 30 ambassadors to share thoughts about their 9th grade, using special campaign hashtags:  #clasa9B (for bloggers) and #clasa9J (for journalists). Their posts had the objective of motivating and inspiring others to remember how they were in the ninth grade, how the possibility to attend high school shaped their future and encourage them to donate for other childrens’ dreams. The campaign’s amplification in social media gained attention of online communities that contributed to the fundraising effort.

In the second phase, at the end of the campaign, we created an Oracle gathering all sorts of information from the kids and our ambassadors. It was printed and distributed to all the children enrolled in the “I want to go to high-school” programme, which were enthusiastic to find out more about the people that are supporting them as ambassadors of the project.

We initiated a simple campaign mechanism in which for each symbolic donation of memories, the companies donated 250 RON, the equivalent of a monthly scholarship for a child. We learned, again, that people react and engage when they can perceive very well what their concrete contribution to the programme & campaign is.