Orbis UK
The story of providing urgent eye care in a pandemic
Brief
To produce the annual Christmas mailer about the urgent challenges posed to eye health provision by coronavirus in South East Bangladesh, foregrounding a matched donation ask.
Challenge
To keep avoidable blindness front and centre of a multi-headed proposition: coronavirus, matched donations, Christmas, avoidable blindness and Rohingya refugees.
Solution
Three creative concepts which combined relevant elements of Orbis’s essence with the particular challenges of Christmas 2020: family, togetherness and timeliness.
We were struck by the story of an Orbis eye care worker, Biswajit, who had lost his wife to coronavirus but continued his sight-saving work in solidarity with his colleagues. We made Biswajit the voice of the letter, providing an authentic frontline perspective on the many challenges of providing eye health to low-income, rural communities in lockdown.
Biswajit’s account provided a moving context for the two beneficiary stories we told in the lift. And we neatly combined the matched funding message and Christmas theme with a pair of baubles that provided a regular motif throughout the pack.
Result
It was a bold move to lead with Biswajit’s story rather than a beneficiary’s, but we were thrilled to learn that he really captured Orbis supporters’ imagination and instinct to give.
With results still coming in, the main mailer has exceeded its income target by more than 50% and the reminder by more than 150%.
The main mailer has exceeded its income target by more than 50% and the reminder by more than 150%
