It’s not very often in this industry that we get the chance to work on a brand or product that truly makes a difference in the world. Or in people’s lives. And as students, we rarely get the chance to create work that gets produced. Outside the walls of 103 South Jefferson that is. I’ve been lucky enough during my two years as a Brandcenter student to work on a brand that literally saves lives. Children’s lives. Thousands of them, in fact. Increasingly more each year. Some of those because of our efforts. Just in case that wasn’t enough incentive to work on this brand, I’ve also been able to help bring a tremendously meaningful creative campaign to life. Twice. In 2007, David Droga presented his idea of the Tap Project to U N I CEF. And they immediately jumped on board. His idea was simple. But, in my opinion, brilliant. He proposed that during World Water Week in New York City, restaurants would ask their patrons to donate one dollar for tap water. Water that they’d normally receive for free. And, in return, the money raised would go to countries all over the world, where clean water is not available. Where their lack of clean and accessible drinking water is a leading cause of death, especially in children. Water that most of us take for granted. One dollar is actually enough to provide a child with clean drinking water for 40 days, or to give 40 children clean water for one day. The Tap Project’s initial launch in New York was so successful that in 2008 other cities were asked to join in the efforts. One of those cities happened to be Richmond, VA. More specifically - The VCU Brandcenter. Most cities that work on the Tap Project have agencies creating their campaigns. I think it says a lot about the caliber of our program and our students that the Brandcenter was chosen as Richmond’s ‘agency.’ And I couldn’t be happier, prouder or more grateful for the opportunity. For the past 3 years, the sole focus of Tap has been on the participating restaurants, and driving people to them during World Water Week. And for us, that meant focusing on Richmond. However, this year we were tasked with a new challenge: U N I CEF asked us to come up with additional fundraising tactics
that could live beyond the restaurants, and if we wanted - beyond World Water Week. In true Brandcenter fashion, we accepted this challenge and went to work. We’ve certainly had our share of obstacles in the process, but we couldn’t be happier with what we’ve created. Or the possibilities that lie ahead.
(in inches) over the last 30 days and given the opportunity to donate accordingly. Our main goal is to put a positive spin on what’s usually considered to be bad weather. We may not be able to control or predict the weather, but we’d like to make it count. With your help, of course. By not only achieving the objective that U N I CEF set for us, but surpassing it, we’ve given Tap the opportunity to live beyond the restaurants and have a much greater reach than just Richmond. By encouraging people to donate their city’s rainfall to a greater good, we’ve begun a nationwide movement. Our campaign instills hope in April showers this year. We are giving them the power to send clean, accessible drinking water to children in Togo, Central African Republic, Vietnam, Guatemala, & Haiti. And it’s a great feeling!
SOCIAL N ETW ORKI NG In addition to a variety of print and promotional executions, we created a twitter page to create buzz about our campaign and start soem conversations. We also set-up the ability to tweet and post to your facebook wall directly from our site.
This year’s ‘There’s Hope in Rain’ campaign is inviting people all over the country to donate $1 for every inch of rain that fell in their city in the past 30 days. We’ve produced a number of different print and promotional executions that drive people to our website: www.hopeinrain.org. On our site, people can choose their city, or the one closest to them. They are then shown the rainfall
2 0 10 Richmond Tap Project Team: Kendall Beveridge CBM / Albert Kugel CBM / Ryan Gallagher CS / Maureen McFee CT / Sharon Showalter CT / Grace Harris CW / Sarah Inglis AD & 1st Year Students: Jack Inscoe CT / Abbey Dethlefs CBM / Vasili Upensky CBM / Danny Shepelwich CS