Homeless people lead a tough life, and during winter they are forced to face terrible cold, and we can’t even imagine how it feels to live on the streets when the temperature goes below zero. Well, in Düsseldorf, Germany nonprofit organization Fiftyfifty is actively trying to help out those less fortunate and are homeless. With the help of Havas Worldwide, they actually recreated that nasty experience transforming a warm and cozy movie theater in a freezing environment, just like the one thousands of homeless people experience everyday.
They turned the air-conditioning to 8°C / 46°F to help simulate what it would be like to live on the streets. They then showed a video of homeless people on the street commenting on the cold theater experience. To them, 8°C / 46°F is cozy. The people in the cinema are given blankets with a QR code to donate to the campaign.
It’s a genius campaign where people are looking to relax and enjoy a film, but get a dose of reality. The reality is that people on the streets don’t have this luxury. It’s also a wonderful and applicable use of the QR code, although it could have been avoided. Experience marketing gets aggressive when it comes to charity support. I like it. I like the “in your face” attitude. What I would criticize is that they asked people to donate via QR code. I’m really curious on the conversion rate. How many people had a QR code reader on their phones? Probably an assumption that most people in germany have a QR code scanner, yet I’m sure ALL of them had a few spare Euros in their pockets, would have been easier. Faster. And cheaper.
Regardless, great campaign and it shows us great ideas don’t always require the digital spin…hopefully agencies can learn from that fact.
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