The UNICEF Australia brief was a straightforward one: highlight the issue of child slavery, and the exploitation of child labour generally, with the objective of raising funds to help combat the problem worldwide. The solution is a direct mail piece, in the guise of a shopping catalogue of child labour "bargains".It functions as a direct demonstration of the problem of child labour exploitation, best summed up by the front cover line: "They're treated like property so others reap the profits." Normally a low budget (necessitated, of course, by the fact that this is a charity piece) would work against the best expression of an idea. But in this case, given that the solution is a retail catalogue of the kind that regularly infests our letterboxes, the necessarily cheap paper stock actually works in the idea's favour.In a sense, the "catalogue" is a simple demonstration. But whereas most work in this category shows the plight of the affected, this piece goes further. The juxtaposition of typical retail terms and iconography with images of affected children places you, the consumer, squarely within familiar but now uncomfortable territory.In this way it doesn't merely demonstrate the situation these children find themselves in. It actually demonstrates the mindset that has created (and which perpetuates) the problem, in stark and uncompromising terms.Having done so, the solution (a donation) comes as something of a relief - and a gratifyingly simple one.

Normally a low budget (necessitated, of course, by the fact that this is a charity piece) would work against the best expression of an idea. But in this case, given that the solution is a retail catalogue of the kind that regularly infests our letterboxes, the necessarily cheap paper stock actually works in the idea's favour.In a sense, the "catalogue" is a simple demonstration. But whereas most work in this category shows the plight of the affected, this piece goes further. The juxtaposition of typical retail terms and iconography with images of affected children places you, the consumer, squarely within familiar but now uncomfortable territory.In this way it doesn't merely demonstrate the situation these children find themselves in. It actually demonstrates the mindset that has created (and which perpetuates) the problem, in stark and uncompromising terms.Having done so, the solution (a donation) comes as something of a relief - and a gratifyingly simple one.

Even in purely monetary terms, the Child Labour Appeal is the single most successful appeal campaign UNICEF Australia has ever completed. Over AU$332,000 was raised from less than 30,000 recipients; 32% higher than the target figure (AU$250,000) set in the client brief.This mailing element was highly segmented, in order to gain maximum learnings on responses from different groups of potential donors. Some of these segments yielded response rates of up to 28%, with returns on investment of over 170. The average figures across the entire mailing was an 11% response rate, with ROI of 8.