Everyone’s heard about AIDS and Cancer. But how many have heard about the Cleft? Over a million children in India alone are affected. 1 in 10 will die before their first birthday. Yet most know nothing about the cleft and why a cleft charity like Operation Smile India struggles for support.

Also, we didn’t have millions to spend on billboards, press and TV. So we needed to design a simple method to tell people what Operation Smile does, and then take their help to make cleft a popular cause.

idea:

:{to:) , the CleftToSmile

A ‘type-able’ logo to bring the Cleft in the public eye.

:{to:) very simply showed the life-changing transformation Operation Smile brings to the lives of children with cleft. Hence, spreading awareness about the issue without the need of saying a single word.

And so we asked people to tweet the logo to spread awareness.

Insight: People love sending smilies anyway. But this time, it meant much more.

On April 1st, 2013, through simple videos and posts, we asked India to tweet to support the cause.

Anyone searching CleftToSmile led them directly to our website and a video of the campaign.

The campaign organically spread online. As thousands of regular people began tweeting, it was picked up by top twitterati, bloggers and celebrities who tweeted and blogged which further spread the reach.

As we exploded beyond twitter, what started with simple tweets snowballed into huge coverage across other media.

:{to:) was so easy to spread, that it became only natural for people to tweet it.

20,000+ Tweets.

Soon major celebrities joined in and spread awareness for Operation Smile to millions of their followers, not just in India but across the world.

100+ Celebrities

From one to many to many more, this message spread and today a lot more are aware of the cause.

Total Reach – 30 Million.

“One good thing this logo has done is when we now go seeking support to corporates and foundations, they at least don’t ask us ‘What is cleft?’” – Prashanti Mikalya – Administrator, Operation Smile India.