Cesviamo: Wanna Bet We’ll Succeed?
Cesvi
Issue 10 | March 2009
Agency
RAPP - Tribal DDB
Creative Team
Sergio Müller - Creative Director; Guido Renda - Copywriter; Katia Gurrado- Copywriter; Stephanie Carta - Art Director; Gabriele Salamone - Art Director; Manuela Sissa - Graphic Designer; Beatrice Gnan - Graphic Designer
Production Team
Paolo Villani - Development; Sergio Mandelli - Project Manager
Other Credits
Ilaria Affer, Paola Zorzi - Account Management; Elisabetta Iamundo - Planner
Date
December 2008
Background
Cesvi is one of Italy’s largest humanitarian organisations, providing assistance in emergencies. It needs private donors to help fund its activities around the world. However, in Italy only 34% of people give to charity and most of those that do give are women aged 55+. Cesvi wanted to engage with younger people in such a way they overcame the prejudice that if you do something for someone who is having a bad time, it’ll make you feel bad too. Now charity can be fun.
Idea
The agency’s starting point was that charity doesn’t have to be about feeling sad and sorry for the way the world is. You can have a laugh supporting Cesvi. Cesviamo means ‘let’s Cesvi’. So the idea was to get people to have fun by volunteering to do something they’d never done before and making their friends give money to see them do it.
What players had to do was bet their mates online that they would do something strange or crazy. They had to set an amount of money they needed in order to go through with the stunt – and a time limit. A press conference launched the idea to the media, with MTV VJ Giorgia Surina being the first to place a bet on herself. Cesvi employees started seeding the idea on Facebook and through other networking sites and when Trio Medusa raised the money to do a non-stop 48-hour gig on Radio DJ, the idea went massively viral.
Results
The website and the press launch were sponsored by Nokia. In addition, all media coverage was free. Word of mouth was given a boost by many VIPs joining in and there will be a new celebrity with his or her bets on the homepage every month for at least a year. The results expected in three months (visits, registrations, bets placed, money raised) were achieved in 30 days. The satellite channel Fox have become involved, making a substantial cash donation and producing a spot, airing it and inviting Cesvi’s project director to come on TV to be interviewed about it.
Our Thoughts
Isn’t this brilliant? All the pundits are saying that social media is the way advertising is going but no-one really quite knows how. Here’s an idea that’s just not about a brand or about a product but about you – and your friends. As of now you don’t have to be pious to help victims of earthquake, famine and war. You can be a nutter. In fact, the more idiotic you are the more you can do for those less fortunate than you. Fantastic.