World Vision is one of 5 members of the UN Sustainable Development committee with a 5-Star rating from Charity Intelligence Canada in 2023 for financial transparency. Ending hunger has been a core goal from day one in the 1950’s, feeding children in particular. Nourished children are critical to health and education, and happiness and plays a critical role in the long-term, sustained success of people.

Rather than show starving kids when even people close to home were suffering from food insecurity, we chose to focus on the power of World Vision to feed so many children when we have the resources. More than 783 million people worldwide are facing fhunger and World Vision is feeding 2.8 million of them. With more resources, they could feed even more people.

The Brief:

Solve world hunger with child-like wonder.

Objectives:

Increase website traffic

Change perception from a Christians-only organization (long-term)

We turned to the creative power and spirit of children to show what’s possible when children are fed. The result is an a-political, a-religious burpfest that breaks all norms and shows that what’s possible is that kids can experience their rightful childhood when they are properly nourished.

“Burp!” travels the world through regions observing children engaging in the most childish endeavours – burping, giggling, and cheering, Plates are slung, kids’ bellies are full and groups of kids are in their glory being, well, kids as parents and teachers look on; sometimes in disapproving fashion – the kids ignore them. The entire film is a symphony of burps and laughing underpinned by playful and joyful music. The experience breaks traditional sensibilities and norms when dealing with starving children in developing nations and shows the power of what is possible when kids can be kids because they are properly fed.

28% of Canadians are likely to donate and we chose to focus on garnering the attention of those likely donors by attracting them to World Vision Canada through positivity and empowerment, which was guided by a key piece of research from Carnegie Mellon University entitled The Critical Link Between Tangibility and Generosity, (Cryder, et al. 2009), which highlights the Goal Proximity Effect, which is a psychological phenomenon that details that people are more motivated to take a specific action the closer you are to a goal. Therefore, the thrust of the strategy is to make people feel the impact of a successful World Vision, where past efforts have been focused solely on the need.

“Burp!” is a whimsical film about Food Insecurity for World Vision Canada, a registered Not for Profit. Directed by Aaron and Winston Tao, it ran in OLV, TV, and Cinema as :30s, :15s, and :06s, followed with digital ads which drove to donate at World Vision Canada’s website.

Film was purposefully chosen to shift emotional perceptions of both children in need and who they are as humans, and the organization and its applicability to the lives of non-Christian donors and recipients.

“A symphony of burping … with a series of shots of empty plates and children all letting out a burp - to the delight of their peers, and the chagrin of parents and teachers. The spot ends with the tagline, 'Feed a child, feed a childhood.' All of the burps in 'Burp' are real.” LBB Online.

The campaign captured attention and drove renewed resonance among potential donors. Viewers were 3x more likely to donate after seeing the ad and considered World Vision Canada to be 2x more trustworthy. There was a +60% YOY boost to web traffic to learn about World Vision’s initiatives, and there was a significant +150% increase in people feeling that their donations were making an impact.