Our main communication goal was to make people aware of the terrible, global consequences of landmines and of the urgent need to remove them. We wanted to do this without repulsing consumers, thus no blood and guts. Furthermore, we wanted to direct consumers to the Adopt-A-Minefield site www.landmines.org.uk as the site allows one to make donations directly through the Internet. The key media ideas were: To attract attention in a new way, when people least expect it. Thus we decided to create a “3D billboard” with mannequins in shop windowsYet this was done in a tasteful way, not using “shock tactics”.

We chose to “own an area”, with a display inside a shopping mall. We approached Soviet Jeans South Africa and they agreed to lend us the shops for a 2-week period. This allowed us to own a certain time of the year, specifically the 2-week period leading up to March 1st (World Landmine Day). The response from the public was awesome, and many consumers entered the shop to make enquiries. Many of them bought “single kids’ socks”, which were sold for R50 each to raise funds. Some consumers were also referred to the Adopt-A-Minefield website as the site contains more detailed information on the issue. The media team’s contribution to this idea was to suggest to the Creative Department that we needed to ambush potential donors in a fresh and exciting way as the charity genre is very difficult to get people interested in. They suggested different kinds of guerrilla marketing: live events, displays in shopping malls, using restrooms in public areas, etc. The object was not just to get people’s attention when they were least expecting it, but also they actually had money on them. So we thought, what better way to ambush people than while they were shopping? More specifically, inside trendy fashion stores countrywide. The media team suggested using World Landmine Day and owning that time of the year. Thus the two-week period leading up to March 1st was chosen for this event. What makes this idea special is that we used a form of media that has not been used in this way before. We hi-jacked a shop window display, as well as the interior of the shop. The shop mannequins that we usually see in fashion shop windows were transformed into a “live“ billboard” - by taking one leg off each shop mannequin we made them into landmine victims. We placed a banner near the mannequins saying “World Landmine Day. March 1st. Adopt-A-Minefield”. In this way, we got our message across to people passing the shop when they least expected it.

This idea was successful in its context as we were able to confront people with the landmine issue in a different way (not the usual bloody visuals of child amputees), but also in a way that actually made people think about the landmine issue whilst going through their daily routines (shopping).

This idea should be a winner as it uses existing media in a fresh way, and it does not feel like traditional “advertising”, so it cuts through the clutter. The landmine shop display is very different to other, typical examples of public service communication.

The media team’s contribution to this idea was to suggest to the Creative Department that we needed to ambush potential donors in a fresh and exciting way as the charity genre is very difficult to get people interested in. They suggested different kinds of guerrilla marketing: live events, displays in shopping malls, using restrooms in public areas, etc. The object was not just to get people’s attention when they were least expecting it, but also they actually had money on them. So we thought, what better way to ambush people than while they were shopping? More specifically, inside trendy fashion stores countrywide. The media team suggested using World Landmine Day and owning that time of the year. Thus the two-week period leading up to March 1st was chosen for this event.