Amnesty International looks to spread #iwelcome message with social media push

Taking a different path from the original Plan It Day idea - to match people with refugees based on their date of birth - the impressive social campaign was little more than a week in the making and included original artwork, ads in Piccadilly Circus and Times Square and a massive social push.

Launched in September, #iwelcome follows research that 80% of people worldwide would welcome refugees in their country with open arms. Still fresh in the minds of the public the challenge team took the decision to build on the equity of the existing #iwelcome push, deciding it was best to run with the same hashtag as to not dilute the message.

“We became aware of Do It Day last year and were really impressed with the creative work and loved the idea of a creative hackathon for social good,” said Amnesty International global creative manager, Kristin Hulaas Sunde of the charity’s involvement with the event. “We were hoping to get a different angle on #iwelcome, it’s amazing to have all these creative brains together in one room, when you work in the charity sector it's really great to come out and get input and inspiration from people from different sectors.”

Kicking off Do It Day with ads running on the iconic Piccadilly Circus screens, Amnesty’s main focus for the day was managing and maintaining a social media push for #iwelcome inspired by viral campaigns like the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’.

Asking people to take a selfie pointing to their hearts - as all hearts beat the same - the ultimate goal of the campaign was to drive signatures to the #iwelcome pledge with Amnesty recording the numbers prior to Do It Day with a plan to check back after the weekend to gauge success.

In addition to asking the general public to spread the #iwelcome message the Amnesty team also reached out to high profile individuals like Gary Lineker and Lily Allen and bloggers who have publicly shown an interest in the refugee crisis in recent months to amplify the message.

“We really hope this spreads the message of the campaign,” added Hulaas Sunde. “We’ve met some really interesting people and gotten some ideas about how to carry the campaign forward over the next two years - this is just the start.”

Mid-afternoon the campaign linked up with the Amnesty International Do It Day push in New York with the specially-created #iwelcome ads featuring in Times Square drawing attention from various media outlets including the Guardian, which highlighted the timing of the campaign couldn't have been better following the controversial victory of Donald Trump in the American presidential election.

“There are 21m refugees in the world right now and nearly all of them are hosted in developing countries and that’s not fair," concluded Hulass Sunde.

“There’s a simple and fairer solution and that’s if we all did our fair share we could really help transform people’s lives.”

Check out how The Drum's other Do It Day challenges fared here - and remember, it's never too late to commit your talent to any of the fantastic causes launching their campaigns during Do It Day.