Amnesty International Australia wanted to cut through the debate with a high profile newspaper advertisement in major papers. They commissioned Make Believe to design and write the advertisement.

With a fast turnaround Make Believe devised a creative approach encouraging the public to look beyond the political debate and media headlines, to see the issue affected real people and their human rights.

The ad incorporated Amnesty’s global brand guidelines and new photography was shot for the project.

Make Believe also wrote an email alert sent to Amnesty’s Australian membership seeking donations to help put the advertisement in the newspaper. This email generated more than $35,000 in contributions, enabling Amnesty to extend the full-page campaign to three major newspapers.

(Make Believe had also earlier written an email for Amnesty which encouraged thousands of Amnesty members to write to Kevin Rudd on the issue).

Make Believe designed a full-page newspaper ad in the form of a “fake” jobs page featuring the huge range of “clean energy” roles that would be plentiful if the Government adopted a strong climate response - rather than gave into polluters (who were running their own scare campaign on the jobs).

GetUp raised more than $150,000 from its members to place the ad in The Australian newspaper, as well as series of related activities in Canberra the same day.

To encourage people to postpone all those “one last thing” tasks, emails and late meetings, and leave work on time for a change - the Australia Institute has worked with Make Believe to launch Go Home On Time Day 2009, November 25.

The simple and fun website lets visitors register for a “leave pass” and also invite hard-working friends & colleagues to also go home on time.

Complementing the site is a Facebook Fan page and advertising strategy.

The Fair Trade Association of Australia & NZ came to Make Believe with a clear brief: create an online campaign enabling people to pledge to spend $2/day on Fair Trade products.

The campaign would clearly articulate the message that a Fairtrade purchase helps reduce poverty, and encourage people warm to the idea of buying to actually do so.

Working with a very limited budget, Make Believe planned and project managed a simple and immersive website experience.

Featuring a video from The Global Poverty Project, a simple call to action, information on partner groups, and a strong focus on viral sharing through email referral and Facebook Connect, the site seeks to personalise the developing world farmers behind the Fairtrade label.

The site’s design and functionality, including an email marketing engine, was beautifully delivered by our friends at Circul8.

Avaaz engaged Make Believe to design a hard-hitting creative for the billboard - designed to provoke conversation about the campaign’s message. Make Believe provided strategic messaging advice, and worked closely with Avaaz’’s campaigners to design six creative concepts guranteed to get the message across.

The key creative - Osama Bin Laden in an ‘I love Guantanamo Bay’ t-shirt was rejected by the managers of Avaaz’s original giant billboard location, so the campaign was transplated to Faragut North metro station near the White House - with more than 60 placards, banners, posters and billboards plastered throughout every ad space in the station. The ad was also placed in the Washington Post.

The campaign received massive media coverage, including an AFP wire story and photo used worldwide - from Al Aribiya to Yahoo Espana, to Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

Avaaz has been told by insiders that the controversial campaign has helped re-ignite the debate among the national security community and demonstrated a much-needed, powerful and energetic constituency against torture.

Check out www.avaaz.org!

Make Believe is working with Better Place to help build a movement of engaged Australians championing the transition to sustainable transportation over the coming years.

To date, this has involved:

• Revamping the ways people ‘Get Involved’ on the Better Place website
• Creating a video that puts people at the centre of the Better Place story
• A bumper sticker giveaway campaign, creating visible message on the streets of Australia
• Innovative virtual Facebook sticker campaign
• One-click amplification to other social media
• Google adwords and Facebook advertising
• Email copywriting and messaging associated with the online community
• Avant card free postcard campaign in targeted locations

We’re incredibly excited to be involved with Better Place - and as the campaign develops, look forward to collaborating with Australians from all walks of life in this very practical response to the world’s sustainability challenge.

350.org an international campaign in the lead-up to the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen to raise awareness of the urgency of climate change.

With a minimal budget, 350 Australia needed a simple action-oriented website on which they could feature events planned around Australia, provide practical information to event hosts, and accept donations.

Make Believe’s solution featured a strong family-friendly design, imagery of Australia’s iconic places threatened by climate change, and stick-figure imagery indicating action and participation. Youtube was used to present rich media and PayPal was integrated for online donation processing.

We’re looking forward to attending the 350 Australia events on the 26th of October!

Make Believe worked with the body representing hotel workers – the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union – to create a new kind of hotel rating program, The First Star. The aim of the First Star is to set a new standard in hotel quality, “ethical luxury”.

The program will evolve over time. Currently, the First Star website allows travellers to sign on to support the ethical luxury fundamentals, amplify their support through social media and encourage their favourite hotels to get with the program directly. It also allows travellers to hear updates on hotels’ progress and the latest from staff on what really goes on behind the concierge’s desk.

Make Believe delivered:

• A positive creative concept that engages customers, staff and management
• Active outreach and engagement on business travel forums and blogs to solicit input to the design of the program
• The First Star’ branding and website
• Google Ads
• Messaging and copywriting
• Creative guidance on supplementary pieces of communication – such as luggage tags & cards to leave inside hotels
• Script for endorsement video, spoken by Corrine Grant

To raise awareness of Suu Kyi’s plight, Amnesty International Australia launched an online campaign inviting Australians to send postcards of support into Burma. Make Believe provided advice on messaging and copy, including for an email to Amnesty supporters. We also prepared animated banner ads for Fairfax and other websites which went live the day after the verdict.

In addition, Make Believe has conducted broader copywriting/messaging training for Amnesty International Australian staff members, and is regularly advising on email copy.

Make Believe, together with human services consultancy, WestwoodSpice, developed and launched an online survey for young people to confidentially share their experiences. The survey itself had an appealing and bold design, and was developed using an open source survey tool. A Facebook advertising campaign exposed the project to tens of thousands of NSW youth, and resulted in hundreds of survey respondents with a very low marketing spend.

This project was the first time the NSW Parliament had actively solicited input online. The results are now being collated and the young people’s detailed input will inform the NSW Parliament’s recommendations to Government.