Action for Children

You don’t know Lily.
She’s small.
And quiet as a mouse.
And when she wakes on Christmas day, there’s no stocking at the end of Lily’s bed.
No crackers. No tree.
But maybe, just maybe. This year will be different. Because somebody somewhere will be there for her.

Be a Secret Santa for a vulnerable child this Christmas

For children at risk of abuse and neglect, there’s very little to look forward to at Christmas, so safety and warmth and a hot meal may be the best gift they could receive.

With our client Action for Children, we set out to develop an annual Christmas fundraising campaign that would activate a mass audience. The challenge became making the act of donating feel as personal as possible, while retaining the anonymity of the children. And yet, giving a gift anonymously can be compelling.

The roots of Secret Santa lie in leaving gifts at people's houses, knocking on their doors and then running away. The child you help won’t know who donated but you will know that you made someone happy.

Action for Children Secret Santas had the option to ‘buy gifts’ from themselves or on behalf of someone else. Their Christmas messages were shared and all the Secret Santas were recognised on an interactive map.

The campaign ran primarily in digital, with the support of OOH and radio.

A gift-giving pop-up store was launched in London’s Covent Garden.

On Christmas day Secret Santas received a message of thanks.

Character development and animation was created in collaboration with Mosaic films

RESULTS
Working with such a small budget, the campaign far exceeded targets. The characters gave us a way to create multiple streams of content and with the backing of several celebrities, the campaign was widely shared on social media.

The campaign is now in its third year. In 2019 the campaign raised almost £450,000 from over 19,000 Secret Santas. In 2020 this rose to £1 million.