On the 24th February 2022, Russia launched an all out attack on Ukraine, creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. Initial campaigns from all charities focused on functional fundraising messages.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) wanted to spotlight the real victims of the war - children - and to fundraise to support their work on the ground supporting children.

Our main objective with this campaign was to let Irish people know that their donations could have an immediate impact on helping the countless children of Ukraine. Money donated could rapidly be turned into food, first aid, clean drinking water and blankets. We just needed to get the message out there in a creative way that would cut through the noise and drive the public to take action.

The soundscape needed to feel as close to reality as possible, so listeners felt as though they were immersed in the conflict. The child playing was recorded close to the microphone, so we could sense her nearby presence. Hard cuts were chosen to sharply contrast her safe world and the horrors facing the children of Ukraine. Foley effects and location records of children at play/ car alarms were included. Screams were sourced but used delicately. Using psychoacoustic and subharmonic processing, we made the bombs and explosions shake speakers as much as possible while keeping in spec for radio, which was a fine line to thread. These juxtaposed schoolyard ambiances really brought home how different the two worlds were. Finally, compression kept things in check. We didn't slam or colour too much, so the transients stayed crisp and the final audio felt more natural and not over-compressed

Our media strategy identified radio as the optimal channel for reach and cost efficiencies, so we focused on an audio campaign on Ireland’s national radio stations - RTE Radio 1, RTE 2FM, Today FM, and Newstalk, as well as digital audio on Spotify. We ran 1,739 spots which reached all adults, with 1,024 gross rating points, 1+ listens registered 86%, 8+ listens achieved 47%, with an opportunity-to-hear of 11.9 times. Based on digital radio feedback performance was above all benchmarks - with a 98.73% listen-through-rate compared to the average rate of 85%. We found that smartphones delivered the highest listen-through, at 95.24%, and the most impressions at 93%.

This work ran alongside Unicef’s Crisis Appeal, and resulting donations allowed the charity to reach over 3.3 million children and caregivers with mental health and psychosocial support, providing learning supplies to over 1 million children.