The Unexpected Homeless
Award-winning integrated campaign for The Salvation Army.
New Zealand’s housing crisis was worsening, but the country had stopped paying attention. To reignite people’s compassion, we brought the issue home. Literally.
We hijacked the nation’s most popular home button. With one click, thousands of Kiwis were made unexpectedly homeless, landing not on a homepage, but inside the raw and confronting story of real people living without a roof.
This campaign put the spotlight back on the housing crisis, sparking a national conversation, driving awareness, media coverage, and inspiring action and donations for The Salvation Army.
Online Videos
We hijacked The New Zealand Herald's home button. When readers clicked on it, instead of landing on the homepage, we redirected them to one of three short films sharing people’s experiences of homelessness. It was unexpected, human and impossible to ignore.
Experiential + Media Hijacks
We created more media hijacks on TradeMe, New Zealand’s most popular online auction site, and Herald Homes, Auckland's biggest real estate newspaper.
We took home buyers from the promise of a dream listing straight into the real-life story of someone who had experienced homelessness.
And in one of our most talked-about activations, we staged an open home inside a car that had been lived in by a homeless family.
Agency: TBWA NZ