MANILA – Y&R Philippines’ TURD Talks campaign for Silid Aralan smelled of victory as it received the country’s only win in the recently concluded 2016 Asia-Pacific Effies Awards held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Singapore last April 21, 2016. Awarding a silver to Y&R Philippines’ entry for the ‘Brand Experience’ category, the Effies honors the region’s most outstanding campaigns that demonstrate unquestionable achievement in marketing effectiveness.
Silid Aralan, Inc, is an education-based charity that helps low-income students to uplift their academic standing not through reviews and tutorials, but by instilling in them the love of learning first. Usually, other charities give scholarships only to the select few who excel academically. However, these gifted ones only account for 1.3% of the total student population. Silid Aralan chooses to scale for change by transforming the rest of the student population composed of average students and the underperforming ones. They are the ‘turds’ of the class – those who barely pass or completely fall below the passing rate, but are equally deserving of support and opportunities.
Silid Aralan worked with Y&R Philippines to come up with a campaign that helped spread awareness and gain donations for the cause by letting their potential donors experience the transformation themselves.
TED Talks is a popular ideas-sharing platform where expert knowledge on different topics can be easily accessed. Putting a spin on this, the agency came up with TURD Talks – the first lecture series conducted by the ‘turds’ of the class.
The initial TURD Talks event proved to be quite the experience for the audience composed of educational practitioners and potential donors as Silid Aralan received an on the spot public donation of Php 6 million (USD 126,761). The charity received a further Php 2 million (USD 42,253.80) donation from a Singaporean donor who found out about the cause from an online article, while cash proceeds from individual donors amounted to Php 800,000 (USD 16,901.5.) In the succeeding months, the campaign generated so much noise, that Silid Aralan received free media valued at Php 10,787,220 (USD 228,267.10.)
Currently, the TURD Talks video series is set to be translated into Portuguese and German as Silid Aralan has partnered with SAP Philippines to improve its operations infrastructure, develop a Social Return on Investment Tool to account donations, and eventually showcase TURD Talks in other countries.
With a minimal campaign spend of just Php 28,000 (USD 591.55), Y&R Philippines’ TURD Talks campaign helped Silid Aralan gain financial support from key stakeholders, educational institutions and even from the government in order to uplift more low-income, low-performing students. TURD Talks was also able to overcome donors’ compassion fatigue with an impressive brand experience that opened their eyes to Silid Aralan’s cause – that anyone can overcome a crappy start in life.
