September Christmas
Tamanna
Issue 25 | December 2012
Agency
Horizon Draftfcb
Creative Team
Regional Creative Director: Alain Hochar Associate Creative Directors: Paola Mounla, Souliman Alchair Senior Copywriter: Kamlesh Shankar Senior Art Director: Siham Saab Account Director: Aline Baddour
Production Team
Production House: Wonderful Productions Director: Andre Chammas
Other Credits
Special thanks to: Carmen, Claudine and Maroun Salloum Lebanon’s First Lady, Mrs. Waffa Seleiman Lebanon’s Defence Minister, Mr. Fayez Ghosn The Lebanese Army Air Force & Commando Solidere & Beirut Souks Xpandable Online Services
Date
September 2012
Background
To give them joy, strength and hope, Tamanna granted the wishes of children with critical illnesses, aged between 3 and 18.
Making the wish come true gave the children a magical experience they could share with their families. Tamanna granted an average of three wishes a week. To help raise awareness of their work Horizon Draftfcb created a short film to show one such wish coming true.
Idea
Carmen, an 8-year-old girl battling cancer, wished for an iPad for Christmas but to make the gift something she’d never forget, her Christmas came early.
Carmen had had five days of intensive chemotherapy and was walking around Beirut Souks with her parents. They stopped for a strawberry ice cream and as they stepped out of the shop, carols started playing, while volunteers distributed red Santa hats to the astonished crowd.
Santa himself abseiled out of a helicopter, making his way through the crowds to give Carmen her Christmas present, an iPad. A banner unfurled with a picture of the unsuspecting star. Many bystanders had tears in their eyes but Carmen herself was laughing and smiling with joy.
Results
The campaign gathered massive global TV & press coverage including 2-3 minutes on prime time news on MTV and FTV. It was featured by many influential bloggers. As well as achieving its primary objective of raising awareness, the activity also led to an increase in donations. By October 19, the online donations increase by 74%, while the volunteering was up 100% as a result of the September Christmas operation.
Our Thoughts
In the old days, we used to write TV ads with actors playing real people.
It was all scripted so we were in complete control of the process. Nowadays, that sort of contrived little play-let doesn’t work online. We seem to respond best to real people involved in real experiences, which we are able to share vicariously through YouTube or whatever.
Of course, you can’t script or control these ideas. You simply have to roll camera and hope everything works out for the best, as it did in this little film.
The fact it was shown on not one but two TV news programmes, reaching huge numbers of people, is testament to a big-hearted idea whole-heartedly executed.