Very good manners
Polish Red Cross
Issue 29 | December 2013
Agency
Cheil Poland
Creative Team
Creatives Wojciech Kowalik Maciej Kozina Creative Director Marcin Talarek
Production Team
Website Design Jakub Kozina Marek Pelka Animation FDR Studio
Other Credits
Project Manager Maciek Sobieski Public Relations Marta Ruszkawska Additional Credits Piotr Zawallo Aleksandra Monczak
Date
September 2013
Background
The Polish Red Cross had been raising money to feed the children of impoverished families since 2001.
Traditional fund-raising campaigns had worked effectively but there was a need to create a more long-term solution in order to provide meals to more than 700,000 malnourished children in Poland.
Idea
In polite society, it was good manners to put your knife and fork together on the plate to signify to others that you had finished your meal. Similarly, a knife and fork placed at an angle to each other showed that you were still eating.
The idea was to encourage diners in restaurants to show both that they had finished and that they were willing to make a donation to the Red Cross by getting them to cross their eating implements.
Paper table mats explained the idea and that anyone crossing their knives and forks would be giving permission for 5 PLN (€1.5 or USD $1.65) to be added to the bill.
This was enough to pay for a hot meal for a hungry child.
An animated infographic on YouTube and the Red Cross website drove traffic to the Very Good Manners website where restaurants could sign up to join the cause.
Results
The idea was introduced initially to four restaurants. After just one month this resulted in: a 90% increase in nationwide donations, €100,000+ of free media and awareness of the idea spread to an audience of over 10 million. In the same period, over 30 restaurants had applied to join the scheme
10,000,000 + audience, 30+ restaurants volunteered to join Very Good Manners.
It is estimated that donations between September and the end of 2013 will more than double the total amount raised by the Polish Red Cross in the previous year.
Our Thoughts
Right message, right place, right time. What I like about this idea is that the train of thought behind it started with the donor. Where and when is someone with a bit of loose change most likely to be persuaded to donate some of it?
In many agencies, the train of thought would start with the message. No matter how compelling the ad, the barriers are spectacularly high to picking up a phone or going online to spend five or ten minutes dealing with the bureaucracy of making a donation. Getting people to give without even noticing they are giving at all is very neat. And at the moment when the diner is feeling both indulged and indulgent, well that’s brilliant.