2016 Bronze Best Use of Technology

Agency Atomic London

Client Cancer Research UK

Campaign summary

A virtual reality garden at Hampton Court Flower show, with a flower for each legacy donor

Campaign overview

More than 100,000 amazing people have left gifts in their wills to Cancer Research UK, funding over a third of their life saving research projects.

The brief was to remember these people and inspire others to think about leaving a gift in their will to the charity in the future.

Strategy

Legacy gifts make up more than a third of Cancer Research UK’s funding, without them the charity’s work couldn’t continue, and the charity wanted to remember these individuals in a thoughtful way.

Rather than creating a real, single-location flower tribute garden, they created a VR ‘Life Garden’ – a world first.

So loved ones had access, they decided to enter it into one of the UK’s largest flower shows, the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. And it was selected by the judges.

Cancer Research UK invited friends and family to be the first to experience it, using an Oculus Rift. Each Oculus user could have a personalised experience with their loved one’s name blossoming out of a flower. Names of other supporters who had left a gift in their will to the charity appeared out of flowers in the background. Capturing visitors’ email addresses meant a still of the flower dedicated to their loved one could be sent to them.

Creativity

The campaign set out to achieve two things: to celebrate the lives of the amazing people who had left a gift in their will to Cancer Research UK; and to show friends and families the impact of their loved ones’ gifts.

The response from friends and family was overwhelmingly positive.

People were moved by the experience they had, and the data used to personalise it made it that much more special to them.

Almost 1,000 people used the VR experience at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show with many requesting further information.

Cancer Research UK also wanted those people visiting the experience or reading about it to feel inspired by these remarkable individuals - so that they might consider leaving a gift in the future. Launching ‘The Life Garden’ at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show meant engaging with people at the event and inspiring them to find out more about leaving a gift in their will.

Results

150,000 people visited RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show during the week, and coverage of the garden on the BBC reached 2.5m people.

Further coverage through national newspapers helped reach 23% of the adult population in the UK.

This helped to drive a 416% increase in traffic to the legacy webpages on the Cancer Research UK website during the week of RHS Hampton Court Flower show.

Team

Guy Bradbury (Executive Creative Director) • Samantha Laub (Copywriter) • Tim Kitell (Art Director) • Richard Hill (Chief Strategy Officer) • Will Humphrey (Planning Director) • Kate Mackinnon (Business Director) • Jessica Feltham (Senior Account Manager) • Becky Ormrod (Agency Producer) • Andy McNamara (Lead VR Developer) • Chris McKeeman (Executive Producer) • Caroline Laing (Producer) • Antonia Young (Garden Designer) • Caroline Kent (Director of Legacies) • Sarah Squire (Senior Manager Legacy Marketing) • Sarah Hayman (Project Manager Legacy Marketing) • Anita Ghosh (Senior Marketing Executive) • Rachel Bartholomeusz (Marketing Executive)

Contributors

Rushes (Production Company) Resonate (Audio Post-Production)