The Salvation Army, for being very traditional, didn’t reach the young audience. We had to come up with a strategy to connect to them. And, of course, get donations from them.

Another point of the brief was seasonality: the period between April and May is when the institution receives fewer donations.

We declared April 18th as Ex-Valentine’s Day. After all, when you break up a relationship, you want to let it go. And to do so, you need to get rid of objects that reminds you of your ex.

Now, it would be possible to forget the past and, at the same time, help those in need. To launch the new day, we created an integrated campaign with direct mail, film, print, online posts and an app that would help us set the Ex-Valentine's Day in a fun way.

Several websites that list commemorative days already included the April 18th as Ex-Valentine’s Day. The campaign spread massively on social networks since young people strongly identified themselves with it. The campaign generated more than 1.1 million dollar in earned media and the Salvation Army received 60% more donations than in previous months. Now, young people not only know the Salvation Army but also identify themselves with it. And help the institution.

We created a new commemorative day that would cause identification to our target, and get them to know and donate to the institution. The Ex-Valentine's Day became an official calendar date, and this generated a lot of promotion to the Salvation Army. The assets that we used in our campaign were totally focused on humour, bringing the idea of this new date in a way that pleased our audience, connecting them to Salvation Army not only in this period, but for good.