British Red Cross (BRC) are a volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. On Boxing Day 2004, the Asian Tsunami killed more than 228,000 people across 14 countries, affecting five million people who lost homes or access to food and water. After the tsunami, the BRC were one of the leading agencies helping tsunami affected communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives rebuild their lives. Over 130,000 lives and 2,900 houses were built back stronger to better withstand future disasters in the largest recovery and reconstruction programme in the organisation’s history since the Second World War.

The brief

The British Red Cross wished to develop various interactive elements as part of its Tsunami five year anniversary communications campaign during December 2009. The aim of the communications campaign was to thank the public for supporting the British Red Cross in helping affected communities recover from the 2004 Asian tsunami and to inform them of the work that had been done and how they had spent money donated to them. They also wanted to raise awareness of what recovering from disasters meant and why it is important.

The result

Our aim was to create an innovative, engaging digital experience which would give the audience a deeper understanding of the many challenges and decisions of the recovery process after the Boxing Day Tsunami 5 years ago . The result, Decisions for Recovery, put the player in the role of a British Red Cross recovery manager and presented a series of real-life scenarios, sometimes unexpected, that mentally and morally challenged the player/decision-maker. Player decisions in turn unlocked rich media and video that illustrated the reasoning behind British Red Cross' approach to re-building lives after the tsunami.

The digital strategy which needed to not only inform and thank donors but also acquire new British Red Cross supporters included a viral video ad, online PR, print, and an expansive social media campaign, all with the ultimate aim to drive audiences to take the challenge.

With the campaign launched in the week before Christmas, it is anticipated that thousands will take the challenge over Boxing day, and share their scores across the social media networks. More importantly, it is hoped that those who had already donated will now have a better understanding of how their contribution helped rebuild lives after the tsunami, and consequently continue donating.

Click to visit the http://www.recoveringafuture.org.uk/ site