United Way of Greater Atlanta: Silence the Growl by Dagger

In an unorthodox industry approach to building a campaign, several Atlanta-based ad agencies were asked to participate in a hackathon to create a solution around the United Way of Greater Atlanta's 'Silence The Growl' campaign - a meal-funding program created to fill the empty stomachs of children in Atlanta’s 13-county region, most of whom live in areas of low child well-being.

The winning concept (attached) from Atlanta agency, Dagger, integrated a mix of heart-warming UGC content, music and animation to highlight the side effects of hunger, as well as the potential of what kids can achieve when not hungry.

Agency teams were briefed and given one day to design, wordsmith and edit a final concept, before presenting to a panel of judges that included senior marketing executives from The Coca-Cola Company, Cinnabon and others, as well as United Way’s leadership team. Jukin Media, a digital media company that helps brands and agencies leverage user-generated content, created and planned the inaugural hackathon, providing teams with access to its user-generated content library of over 60,000 videos, including licenses to the chosen videos, pro bono, to help bring each agency’s respective campaign to life.

“We’re thrilled to partner with United Way of Atlanta and rally the local creative community to come together in support of an incredibly important issue,” said Derek Smith, director of brand + agency licensing at Jukin Media. “We believe that real footage featuring real people can form the basis for remarkably powerful and emotional ad campaigns, and the Dagger team proved it with their impactful and entertaining creative concept in service of the 'Silence The Growl' initiative.”

The 'Silence The Growl' campaign was designed to increase awareness of the nearly 350,000 kids in Greater Atlanta facing hunger, especially out-of-school times like summer and school breaks when they go without the free and reduced-priced meals at school.

“Chronic hunger is one of the many things that confront children living in areas of low child well-being, which is the focus of our work at United Way,” said Liz Ward, Chief Marketing Officer at United Way of Greater Atlanta. “Children who are hungry and don’t know where their next meal is coming from can’t bring the attention and energy they need to do well in school or to enjoy being kids. We’re grateful for the strong response from our local creative community for helping address this important problem, and excited to see the power of breakthrough creative to enlist community support.”

In addition to doing something great for the city, Dagger’s prize for the winning campaign is full development of the PSA, and submission to the Effies and Cannes for consideration. To learn how you can help end hunger, visit silencethegrowl.org.