In the footsteps of Band Aid and Live Aid, comes Soft Toy Aid.
The latest educational initiative from Ikea sees the furniture behemoth launch a cuddly, web-led singing campaign as it once again partners with UNICEF and Save The Children to support Schools For Africa.
The Swedish brand will donate €1 from every sale of selected products to educational projects in a set of disadvantaged African nations including Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Ethiopia, South Africa and Madagascar, as well as other education and protection projects in both China and Russia.
The umbrella programme will run from 1 November up until Christmas Eve and will include a donation from every sale of a special set of Ikea soft toys. It is the fifth year that the retailer has supported UNICEF and to date more than €16.7 million ($22m) has been donated in support of 40 programmes in more than 20 countries.
Using the tagline ‘One Euro is a fortune, a child’s smile is worth so much’, this year’s campaign has an increased online focus with a new interactive element added in the form of a specific microsite ‘Soft Toys Aid’ – which shows a giant group of singing Ikea toys.
Visitors are invited to record their own contribution on the site and in doing so become part of what Ikea is hoping will become the world’s largest collaborative Christmas choir. Users are driven to the campaign site where they can record their own songs, select a representative soft toy character, steer that soft toy’s dance movements and shoot their own music video.
For those without a microphone, there is even the opportunity to manually animate their own little critter to dance along with the rest!
Other channels used to support the initiative and spread the campaign include webfilm on the brand’s YouTube Channel and a Facebook element too. On these platforms the Ikea soft toys form their own choir and sign for a better world
Comment
It’s in interesting approach to involve kids themselves in raising money for children’s’ education. The soft toy theme connects to children and families alike – not a bad idea to introduce and encourage social responsibility at a young age. . This social initiative benefits from both entertainment and interactive elements in the giant retailer has combined with the experience and expertise of UNICEF and Save The Children to bring both kids and adults together to help raise impressive sums.
This scheme also suggests that an ongoing, long term commitment is so often crucial when it comes to generating genuine change and maximising impact of CSR initiatives.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHFRL4VDdaw
http://www.facebook.com/pages/IKEA-Soft-Toys-Aid/213681204744
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