Every Christmas, we see romanticised images of the ‘Holy Land’. Everything looks calm and peaceful. Yet today, the Middle East is ravaged by war. For charity Doctors of the World, we brought this inconvenient irony to the fore with #RealityXmas - a set of Christmas cards designed to spark debate, provoke outrage, get petition signatures and increase donations.

Combining traditional nativity scenes, synonymous with the festive season, with genuine 2016 editorial war images, they become a set of unique, and powerful visuals went global, gaining an unprecedented response.

We put the cards for sale online – so people could purchase them, and spread the message themselves. And upon purchase people could opt to sign the petition and apply pressure to government in light of the ongoing Aleppo crisis.

We also used the cards to write hundreds of personal messages to influences in media (Christiane Amanpur, Jon Snow), as well as politicians (Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn) high-profile humanitarians (Kofi Annan, António Guterres) and religious leaders (The Archbishop of Canterbury).

Over the course of the build up to Christmas and advent, we had a tight window of opportunity to create maximum impact. To drive signatures and raise funds.

With a budget of just £3,101 we began with a small run of 2120 cards. But these sold out within 48 hours. We re-invested to produce an additional 2 runs to meet demand, to keep momentum going for the duration of advent.

Overall the cards had 1.78 billion online impressions, causing a 1853% increase in site traffic, acting as a catalyst for 152,468 ‘Free Aleppo’ petition signatures (7,623% above our objective), a key KPI, along with donations that soared at 336% above our initial target, enabling DOTW volunteers to continue to provide critical medical aid across the Middle East. 

Despite DOTW being UK based, it was an international success. Coverage on CNN news, BBC Online, Time magazine and International Business Times, spurred huge interest worldwide. Further publications covered the campaign globally, including the US, Australia, Israel, Indonesia, Netherlands, Korea, Brazil, Germany, Malaysia, and South Africa to name but a few. And it was even embraced by religious leaders. Subsequently, orders for Christmas cards rolled in, and we successfully delivered the concerns of the world to the UK government.

The value of people engaging with the brand on this scale was unprecedented.