EVERY PIN
TELLS A TALE

CAMPAIGN DESCRIPTION

To stand out and inspire a new, younger, audience to support a 100-year-old event we had to create a different value exchange. Going beyond the traditional pound in a box for a paper poppy or responding to a piece of DM, we wanted people to make a personal, more meaningful connection with the battle and those who fought and died in it. We needed a product with intrinsic, profound, meaning to serve as a beautifully crafted tribute to every son, brother and father who died fighting for their country. That would serve as the “voice of the fallen”, providing a direct link from the pin to the individual soldiers who sacrificed their lives. It was imperative to bring the realities of their situation to life and present them as everyday people, just like us, so purchasers could develop a stronger emotional bond to motivate ongoing engagement with our cause.

EXECUTION

Each of our 60,083 limited edition Passchendaele Poppy Pins has the essence of the battlefield in its making. We collected brass shell fuses fired during the battle. This 1917 brass was cast into bars, before being re-melted and poured into a wax mould for their final reincarnation.In addition to the shell metal, each poppy pin incorporates another vital element that links it inextricably to Passchendaele; the soil itself. The very ground the soldiers fought and died upon – and that many still lie at peace beneath. We gathered earth from key locations and ground these soil samples into a fine powder, which was added to red and green enamels before artisans carefully applied them to each brass poppy.Each pin is engraved with ‘Ypres 1917’ and comes presented in a lacquered wooden box with a unique Royal British Legion “Everyman Remembered” Certificate detailing an individual British soldier who lost his life during the battle. Furthermore, each box also activates an AR experience turning the pin into a portal to the trenches, unlocking individual soldiers’ stories from the battle, giving a real understanding of who they were, what else they achieved in life and who they left behind.

OUTCOME

We successfully created a new occasion for the Legion to engage the public and raised £2m incremental revenue to support the Armed Forces community – attracting younger supporters to help cement a brighter future for poppy appeals and ensure the memories of the brave soldiers, live on.Thousands, aged 18-80 (compared to the traditional 60+ donor) purchased the pins – at a price point many times greater than the typical £1 paper poppy. The pins inspired action. Thousands went online: sharing how they were made, expressing their pride and remembering the solider commemorated by their pin. Customers were even motivated to go on a pilgrimage to Flanders and pay their respects to the soldier they now feel so close to. Our AR experience received a previously unheard of 40% interaction rate – 10x higher than Blippar benchmarks – with users averaging 74s in the experience, 2.5x a traditional TV spot.

SYNOPSIS

As past wars fade from memory, The Royal British Legion is facing a crisis of relevance. The likelihood of supporting the Poppy Appeal increases with age, the Legion’s average donor is over 60. Plus, the charity is only thought about for the short period prior to Remembrance Sunday and struggles to cut through a highly competitive market for giving during the remaining 50 weeks of the year. The 100th anniversary of WW1 is an unmissable opportunity for the Legion to connect with the British public and generate incremental revenue to fund its ongoing support for the Armed Forces community. Our challenge was to leverage the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele, a battle many have never heard of – to engage a wider, and especially younger, audience at an unexpected time of year for the brand and convince them to make the memory of the soldiers who fell, Live On.

WPPED CREAM 2018 - Highly commended - Design & Branding