Recipe Seeks to Help Rebuild with On-The-Ground Charity in Turkey Following Earthquakes
With the news of the earthquakes quickly disappearing from mainstream media, Recipe wanted to remind people that now is the time to help, as Turkey tries to rebuild in the aftermath.
Recipe has two members of the team directly affected, hence the agency had first-hand insight as to how bad the situation was on the ground. This was how they discovered the charity Ahbap.org (which loosely translated means 'friend'). It’s a non-governmental organisation doing incredible work to help search and rescue, as well as providing food, shelter and aid to survivors. Recipe was put in touch with Burak Karagol, government and social impact partnerships manager at Meta, who also helps Turkish nonprofits and public sector organisations to use Meta platforms more effectively. With his help, Recipe contacted Ahbap to offer the charity a voice in the UK and help with ongoing funding, free of charge.
#BeAfriend Together We Can Rebuild
With no prior international marketing spend or awareness, the campaign needed to not only break down any trust barriers but also communicate a clear message when translated into English. Ahbap is the friend on the ground for those living a nightmare and they too need all the friends they can get at this time. Therefore, #BeAFriend #BeAahbap was the perfect brand platform to start building the campaign on.
With no predefined formats for the campaign, Recipe initially designed shop window/POS signage for local Turkish businesses within the UK with a simple QR code donation process. Having secured commercial inventory support to extend the campaign to TV, the team then created a 30 second TVC to introduce Ahbap, remind UK audiences of the situation in Turkey as the country tries to rebuild, and encourage donations. The first burst will run from 15th March until the end of the month, with the hope of it returning, as Recipe continues to source further funding.
To overcome core barriers to donate (such as audiences not feeling close to the cause, a complex donation process and that charities can be perceived as being persistent and invasive) they knew they had to do something different. Recipe decided to strip back the creative into a minimalistic, 2D animation, built around a QR code, with the clear objective to make donating as simple as possible.
The TVC opens on an apartment block that sways from the earthquake and eventually crumbles to the ground. Bit by bit, we see the pieces come back together, but this time to form a QR code, demonstrating the restoration through the CTA. Together we can rebuild.
Gonca Akpınar, general coordinator at Ahbap said: “When Recipe offered to create a campaign to help raise awareness beyond our borders, we of course were grateful, but made clear we had no resources available to support creative development - our efforts simply must stay solely focused on the work we're doing on the ground. As a result, we gave them full creative autonomy to act and think on our behalf. We had no idea what will be created, and yet the 'Together We Can Rebuild' creative and the local business initiative perfectly captures who we are and what we're doing to rebuild our community. They have helped guide us with technical changes to ensure a direct link to donations, whilst working with agility to make a campaign from nothing. Any further funds raised from this campaign will make all the difference"
