Emoji Up A Gift
Proximity London/Evelina London Children’s Hospital
Issue 42 | March 2017
Agency
Proximity London
Creative Team
Art Director Neil Williamson Copywriter Alex Buchanan-Dunlop Executive Creative Director John Treacy
Production Team
Lead Developer Jamie Whittle Developer Chris Silk Senior Designers Joel Butt Sam Ashby
Other Credits
Project Manager Simon Ismail
Date
December 2016
Background
Every year, ad agencies are compelled to navigate a sea of festive clichés for a brilliant creative idea that will earn praise and recognition from their clients – clients who are busy at the best of times, not least the frantic Christmas period. All too often, this pressure to deliver a masterpiece completely takes over what Christmas is really about: giving to others.
Idea
'Emoji Up A Gift' was a lo-fi social idea with festive spirit at its heart. Each of Proximity's clients was invited to inspire one of 100 Christmas presents for Evelina London Children's Hospital – by tweeting any three emojis to @EmojiUpAGift. There, an ingenious present generator transformed the emojis into an actual gift based on their meanings. Once found, the items were quickly ordered in time for the hospital's official present-giving ceremony. Each inspired gift was also tweeted back to its respective client, along with a witty explanation of how it linked to their chosen emojis. Clients who weren't even on Twitter could also tweet their emojis, via a basic proxy messaging platform. As activity grew on Twitter and other newsfeeds, the campaign quickly caught on with members of the wider public – all rushing to tweet their own emojis, as the gift count neared its limit.
Results
All 100 gifts were inspired within three days of the campaign's launch. Within that time, 278 online mentions created a reach of 2.7 million. A senior BBC client said: "It's the best Christmas card idea I've seen in 20 years." The campaign was even picked up by CNBC, for a piece about using creativity for good causes.
Our Thoughts
Most agency Christmas cards are an embarrassment even though they provide a great opportunity for agencies to canvas their abilities. By contrast, Proximity have put both time and trouble into this and the end results may not just be happier children but a happier agency CEO as well. Clever and involving agency ‘cards’ have led to new business opportunities in a number of cases. Let’s hope this gets a few clients interested in talking to the agency because what they have demonstrated here is they understand ideas today need to be 1, easy to participate in; 2, tap into the zeitgeist; 3, reward all those who do engage by making them feel good about themselves in some way.