This Campaign Cost Nothing, created by The VIA Group for The Salvation Army, www.salvationarmydonate.org

The world is changing in so many ways. The recent financial collapse
has forced the consolidation of business in every segment of the market. This has led to far fewer businesses that are directly tied to local communities. It is also a tremendously difficult time for nonprofits to raise money. Just when communities need their services the most, many nonprofits have been forced to cut back because they face record budget shortfalls. Such was the case for The Salvation Army when they came to us for help.

Obviously they didn't have money for a big print or broadcast buy, so instead we turned to the community and harnessed the power of 50 local businesses. We wrote, painted, stamped and even burned our campaign messages onto everything from rocks, tarps and dirty car windshields to storefront windows, pizza boxes and coffee sleeves. We were everywhere. But this wasn't just powerful guerrilla marketing. The most important thing about this campaign was the community that came together to launch it

Obviously they didn't have money for a big print or broadcast buy, so instead we turned to the community and harnessed the power of 50 local businesses. We wrote, painted, stamped and even burned our campaign messages onto everything from rocks, tarps and dirty car windshields to storefront windows, pizza boxes and coffee sleeves. We were everywhere. But this wasn't just powerful guerrilla marketing. The most important thing about this campaign was the community that came together to launch it.
Let's not forget that these are small businesses--very few with substantial marketing budgets--but they came together to create the first community campaign I've seen outside the realm of politics. And by harnessing the community's collective spirit the small became large. Huge actually.

I hope to see a lot more of this in the future. The good news is that, as long as the members of any community are willing to put aside their differences--which there will always be, and there were here--anyone can do this. And they can do it for the cause of their choice.

This Campaign Cost Nothing created by The VIA Group for The Salvation Army
This Campaign Cost Nothing created by The VIA Group for The Salvation Army
This Campaign Cost Nothing created by The VIA Group for The Salvation Army
This Campaign Cost Nothing created by The VIA Group for The Salvation Army
This Campaign Cost Nothing created by The VIA Group for The Salvation Army

Chief Creative Officer: Greg Smith

Senior Art Director/Multimedia: Patrick Sperry (TV)

Art Director: Chris Avantaggio (Guerrilla, TV, print, online)

Copywriter: Mike Irvine (Guerrilla, TV, print, online)

Associate Producer: Meghan Gildart (TV)

Director: Tim Johnston (TV)

Editor: Patrick Sperry (TV)

Music: Andrew Frederick, Cerf-Volantes (TV)

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Dabitch's picture

I love it - especially the handpainted rock, so kyoot and the unwashed cars as media space is clever as usual - I think my favorite part is that it cuts the cynical consumer-rant against advertising short right out of the gate. I don't know how many times I've had to explain to punters that ads for Red Cross and the likes is created for free by ad agencies, with donated media space and donated talent, so it costs them nothing.... I guess the Salvation Army, unlike Unicef, never gets free media space. So you made some! Clever.