H2O has gone missing.
Client: Charity Water
Problem: Clean water has disappeared for 785 million people around the world who have to live without it every day.
Solution: Charity Water will make the text characters “H” “2” and “O” disappear on World Water Day to force people to confront the issue.
Copywriting by Eric Storms, Art direction by Max Guo
Generating Buzz
Ahead of World Water Day on March 22, Charity Water will create buzz with brief cryptic messages. This will start with sponsored posts on social media.
The timing of World Water Day also happens to be just after the beginning of March Madness. Charity Water will take advantage of this by placing messages in arenas such as the Big East Tournament at MSG shown here.
Digital: Twitter
Through a partnership with Twitter, the literal “H” “2” “O” characters will disappear from everyone’s feed. Users can click the info button to see why and will be prompted to donate. Living without the H2O text characters is hard. Living without the real thing is impossible.
Digital: Google
Charity Water will also partner with Google for World Water Day, removing “H” “2” and “O” from its homepage and menus. When you click on the Google logo it searches World Water Day and brings up a message explaining the stunt and encouraging donation.
Outdoor
Charity Water will also partner with select companies to remove “H” “2” and “O” in their own names on their physical locations with messaging visible to explain the disappearance and cause.
Charity Water App
With “H” “2” and “O” missing from the brands, how will these text characters be rediscovered? Consumers will be given the chance. They can donate, share the message or learn more about the issue through quizzes to find letters hidden at certain geolocations and have a chance at winning prizes from the correlated brand. First they will be given an app tutorial, explaining how to play:
Here’s a sample quiz question.
(The correct answer is 40 billion miles.)
When they get close enough to the missing letter, they’ll be prompted to use their camera to collect it using AR.
Once the user shares, donates or completes a quiz, a location nearby will appear for the user to search for the missing text characters.
Once the letter is collected, a prize may be revealed. All prizes will be correlated with the brand of the letter they discovered. Prizes can be accessed at anytime by tapping the gift icon in the bottom menu.
The user can then go back to the quiz/share/donate menu to begin the search again.
Print/Outdoor
In a series of eye-popping posters, literal water will disappear from well-known album covers. These albums are The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA,” Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” and Oasis’ “Be Here Now.”
