Sharity the iconic pink elephant, has been our mascot of instilling values of caring and sharing amongst primary school children for the last 35 years since 1984, to build a more compassionate and inclusive Singapore. But how do we retain his positive influence as they get older, and start adopting new cultural codes and values in this digital world?
Plugged in, but not disconnected from kindness
Despite misconceptions that youths are indifferent to the needs of the less fortunate, and often more engaged with their devices than the community. A Youth Conversations 2018 report, revealed that 9 in 10 youths consider helping the less fortunate and contributing to society as important as their life goals.
Youths have a strong sense of purpose, and play an active role in society. Further observations from a youth dipstick study we conducted uncovered that to encourage positive behaviour amongst teenagers, they need to be validated for their efforts to be more compassionate.
Community Chest, a national fundraising and volunteering arm supporting over 80 social service agencies across 200 critical social services; aimed to extend their kindness engagement to the next generation of youths – secondary school students aged 13 to 16.
As a generation born with immediate ‘on demand’ access to people, places, ideas and brands, rifling through a multitude of influence, Sharity needed to keep up with their ever-changing attitudes, and affirming their importance in shaping the differences that they want to see in the world.
Traditional standards of compassion are warped in this insta-age. Being kind isn’t herculean and grandiose or once-in-a-blue moon. And while we are plugged in to our phones, we are not disconnected from compassion. Teenagers do care, but on their own terms. They will discover and access ways to make a difference, and champion social inclusion of all labels, identities and walks of life. Teenagers just prefer to define their own brand of compassion, and how they exhibit kindness.
We care deeply and effortlessly. We share simply and freely. This is the #SharityIRL for our connected tribe of changemakers. Let’s celebrate modest stories of compassion, ‘in real life’. Surfacing the little ways that teenagers show kindness for family, friends, and even strangers in youth-oriented situations.
Whether it’s giving up the paiseh piece for the family, giving a friend the spare 2B pencil, saving the neighbour’s plant while they are on holiday, sharing our umbrella in the rain with strangers, helping the hawker aunty clean up after ourselves or holding the lift for someone.
We launched our campaign with key visuals across bus stops and MRT stations nationwide, revealing #SharityIRL’s spanking new look drawing visual inspiration from today’s youth culture. Followed by bite-sized vertical videos and animated GIFs seeding teenage-friendly stories of caring and sharing across mobile-first touchpoints on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, along with companion banners across Spotify. Reinforcing our digitally savvy and attention-lean teenagers, that it all starts with simple acts of kindness that they can do in their everyday lives, to show greater compassion towards others.
Next, we got teenagers to define their own personal acts of Sharity through a user-generated social contest, incentivising them with free Spotify premium codes, with an audio spot to drive participation. We ignited our #SharityIRL movement of compassionate acts by teenagers all across Singapore on the social space, for Community Chest to own the official tag of caring and sharing.
In response to the emerging trend in volunteerism amongst youths, we started Community Chest’ first-ever volunteering initiative for secondary school students to give back to their community through the Sharity Youth Volunteer Programme, with exclusive #SharityIRL graphic tees and pins to mark Sharity’s 35th birthday on Sharity Day 2019.
As a result of our extended outreach, we rallied over 80 students to sign up for the programme through their secondary schools, filling in volunteer gaps in the past. Youth volunteers from St Patrick’s Secondary School and River Valley High School handled various volunteer roles – packed goodie bags, manned carnival booths, guided primary school students as game masters, interacted with and facilitated ice-breakers between students from mainstream and Special Education schools at Sharity Day 2019. A huge turnout in the first of many upcoming events for our teenage volunteers.
“Sharity Day was a good experience for my peers to interact with and understand more about persons with special needs.”
— Ng Wei Jie, Secondary 4 River Valley High School
Overall, our campaign overachieved with a total of 5,681,317 impressions against a tight media budget of $100,000. Facebook and Instagram delivered a total of 1,623,473 unique views and 1,858,251 engagements collectively. Our GIF and video posts performed well with a 75% view-through rate, and 50% view-through rate respectively. Spotify delivered a total of 1,996,399 impressions, 397,539 views with a view-through rate of 89.6%, and 15,262 clicks with a click-through rate of 0.53%. YouTube fully delivered 73,605 completed views, with a view-through rate of 16%. The UGC post had an overwhelming reception with 134 acts of Sharity initiated by teenagers themselves.
We drove home our message of compassion and behavioural shifts amongst youths by reaffirming them that little acts of kindness matter. We nurtured teenagers into stepping up towards improving situations they cared about, and in becoming more compassionate people in their everyday lives. Values that they would take forward into their adulthood.
Taking a small step to a bigger step into lifelong giving, and championing our social causes in empowering children with special needs, families at risk, vulnerable seniors, adults with disabilities, and people with mental health conditions.