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Target: College Students that are involved/activist 18-25
Tone: Personal, bold, shocking, simple
Challenge: "How do we make our target understand what it feels like not to have safe drinking water?"
Strategy: Make water unavailable on campus to educate, create awareness, and initiate a reaction. “Empathy through experience”
The campaign begins with a month of education about the water crisis while also creating awareness about The Water Projects newest campaign Weak Without Water which will take place on college campuses across the country. To announce the Weak Without Water we will release a Viral Video that provides insight about how little we think about our daily water in addition to creating awareness about The Water Project in addition to an E-Blast sent to the student body. A mobile site will be the online home for this entire campaign and will be linked to different social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to update followers and allow those involved to share their experience online. Posters will be posted in the library with information about the 3 day event and how to get involved in addition to flyers given away with the same information. All of these include call to actions to mobile site, donations, and how to get involved with the Weak WIthout Water. The campaign is a competition between Universities through donations, online involvement (sharing), and “The Search” involvement.
After the awareness month the 3 day event begins. Day 1 is The Drought and specific water fountains with educational material about the water crisis will become unavailable with a camera to record students reactions to The Drought, these reactions will then be put on the mobile site. The bathroom sinks that will have thirsty children begging for the water we are fortunate enough to wash our hands with and Weak Without Water branding on the mirrors. Additionally, a vending machine with empty water bottles will have a camera to record more reactions of students. The microsite, #weakwithoutwater, and how to donate will serve as a call to action consistently through the event. The stage will be transformed into a dying tree as the centerpiece for the event and will draw attention to the patio. Additionally there will be a photobooth with appropriate backdrops that will allow students to share their contributions to the cause online. There will be a ‘dropbox’ for plastic water bottles made out of plastic water bottles and fact signs with locations to donate in addition to the online option. These sites will continue through all 3 days of the event. Most importantly we want people to sign up for Day 3 The Search which is a obstacle run around campus that mimics the search for water people experience every day.
Day 2 is The Contamination and a continuation of day one except communicating the dangers of dirty water. The vending machine with empty water bottles will change to have dirty water in each bottle with the same call to action and how to donate.
This is all leading up to Day 3: The Search. Students will Run with empty containers, Run through ‘desert’, Pull sandbag out of ‘well’, Put sandbag in container, Run back through the desert, Provide ‘water’ (sand) to community. The goal of this is to let students experience the hardship people go through daily just to find water. The event will be sponsored and every participant receives a sticker when you check-in, access to the photo booth, a flash tattoo, Weak Without Water T-shirt, and a tea bag with rock with the intentions. The tea bag is a symbol for doing good and as a student body, students will throw the tea bags into the lake to communicate the awareness spread about the water crisis and our duty to help.
After the event is over, the mobile site will post how much money was raised in addition to how many people were now aware and educated about the water crisis because of our campaign. The site will summarize how each school did through photos, videos, and student testimonials. This will all be shared on the connected social media websites and then picked up by different news sites about the impact Weak Without Water had and become viral. From there the campaign will continue throughout the country in an effort to aid those who need clean water.