In a sector in which big-budget TV campaigns are not uncommon, Depaul UK, a charity supporting homeless young people, faced a major challenge: how to create cut-though in a saturated market on a budget of just £6000.
The task became trickier still as its target audience of 25- to 45-year-olds are among the most emotionally hardened to homelessness.
The answer was iHobo, an iPhone app that asked users to care for a fictional homeless person on their phone for three days. It was the first iPhone app to use live-action footage instead of CGI, and one of the first to use Apple's 'push alert' technology, ensuring iHobo was there 24/7, sending alerts when he was hungry, cold or lonely, with his health deteriorating if he was ignored.
Another first was Depaul's inclusion of a one-click 'text to donate' facility, which allowed people to give money and add their names to the charity's database. Instantly popular, within a week iHobo had reached the top of iTunes' free-apps chart.
Impressively, the campaign also garnered an estimated media value of £1.2m from its £6000 outlay, winning enormously valuable exposure that included coverage in The Guardian and The Independent.
The app was downloaded 575,000 times, with monthly traffic to the Depaul website up by 59%. It will have a lasting legacy, as the work also delivered 3700 new contacts - 74 times more than previous activity.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Charlie Bigham's (Agency: Eatbigfish)
Ditching the alluring product shots from its packaging was a daring move for Charlie Bigham's, but the high-end ready-meal brand decided on this radical course of action to increase the purchase frequency of existing customers and attract new ones.
The rebrand focused on the idea of 'Twosomes', with the packaging using cartoons to create standout and show how these meals give busy couples time together.
Charlie Bigham's also hosted a dinner party attended by influential bloggers, who subsequently spread the word.
Total retail sales have risen by 54%, while its estimated share of the ready-meals category in Waitrose has increased eight percentage points to 24%.
The judges said: 'It was a high risk taking pictures of the food off the packaging but it paid off with fantastic results.'
Also shortlisted for Marketing on a shoestring: London Metropolitan Police Anti-Knife Crime, Who Killed Deon?; Rachel's Dairy.