How do different agencies approach the same brief? For an insight into the creative process, we once again asked Bright One, the volunteer-run comms agency for the third sector, to put forward a client brief which we could send to two agencies. They came back with very different pitches.

This time, the client in question is the Pixel Project, a global Web 2.0-driven fund and awareness-raising project for the Violence Against Women (VAW) cause.  

The Pixel Project has taken on the challenge of raising US$1 million (or more) for Malaysia’s Women’s Aid Organisation and the US’s National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

The Pixel Project is led by a growing coalition of individual volunteers, activists and pro bono professionals who believe that “no woman should face violence, ever”. The team is currently scattered across four continents, seven time zones and ten cities. Using the power of Web 2.0, they are working to mount a global effort to raise awareness about, promote services for, and hopefully mobilise millions to get involved with ending violence against girls and women.  

The Pixel Project is seeking to raise US$1 million in funds by selling a world-exclusive million-pixel picture of a group global Celebrity Male Role Models online for US$1 per pixel. It aims to fully using the power of the internet to drive viral word-by-mouth awareness raising on the grassroots level.  

Of course, this creates two tough communications challenges.  

• How do they keep their mystery Celeb Male Role Models under complete wraps while effectively generating enough online publicity to build a loyal audience of 1 million supporters in the run-up to the launch of the campaign?  
• Once the campaign is launched, how can they keep the momentum growing and building?  

Simon Lake, managing director, Likemind 

His idea is ‘Pick-a-Pixel’. 

“With one million pixels to sell you’ve got to grab attention and get people to engage with the charity, the game – and each other. That means making a noise above the hubbub of everything else, making the game easy and worthwhile doing. In that way you reward participation, whilst acknowledging that giving is its own reward.  

Generating an irresistible momentum is what it’s all about. Three good examples of this can be seen with:

• The eternal Moonwalk, a tribute to Michael Jackson – even Barack Obama was seen moonwalking around that time
• Various ‘Flashmob’ events which use social networking to create a group event in the real world
• And the photographic work of artist Spencer Tunick who takes pictures featuring thousands of naked people at a time who all just turn up on the day

These all work in different ways, but at their heart they have a clear idea people find compelling that really harnesses the power of social networking. People who participate feel they belong to something special.

Needless to say the one million pixel game would need an appropriate name and campaign around it. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites obviously provide the engine that drives and multiplies the conversation between participants – and publicises both game and charity. To motivate individuals and groups you would need to provide prizes for purchasing certain pixels. There might be a prize or a number of prizes for the individual(s) or group(s) who first guess the identity featured in the image (oh, the celebrities have to be motivating characters too). This might be meeting the celebrity in person or providing 100 limited edition prints of the featured picture.”

Shakeel Butt, managing director, Landau Reece

The idea developed by him and his digital and design teams centres on ‘Uncovering Domestic Violence’

“We felt the challenge lay in the recognition and education surrounding domestic violence. Our idea is to help uncover domestic  violence through a digital strategy based on active participation, making the actual supporters & donors an integral part of the campaign and demonstrating consensus through strength in numbers.

We propose inviting individuals to pledge their support by leaving their mark on a 1m pixel canvas as part of their donation. Supporters will be invited to make their donation ($1) and then be given the opportunity to upload an image thumbnail (such as a photograph or logo) onto a 1m pixel canvas. Each pixel on the canvas can be ‘purchased’ for $1 (i.e. the more you donate the more pixels you can have). The aim of the campaign is to enlist 1m supporters by selling 1m pixels of the blank screen canvas.

Celebrity endorsement would encourage participation by offering signed posters, photographs and video messages of supporting celebrities behind random pixels in the blank canvas that are picked by lucky supporters. We would propose that the Pixel Project enrols 100 celebrities to support the campaign to help maintain anonymity of the 6 featured celebrities.

We believe there are plenty of opportunities to market the campaign both online and offline through celebrity ambassadors and endorsement (by capitalising on their existing followers), online social marketing (such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Audioboo), website affiliation (digital badges that show support for the campaign and link through to the Pixel Project), email marketing and news (see example celebrity endorsement) as well as the social aspect of proud supporters showing friends their thumbnail or mark on the canvas.

Once the million supporter target is reached the campaign can then be advertised on outdoor billboards (sporting a strap line such as ‘Thanks a Million’) to set the target for the next annual campaign. While the completed canvas could ultimately be turned into an art work piece as a legacy to the success of the campaign this year with scope to increase the supporter target next year.”