360 degrees around the children's village

The Pestalozzi Children's Foundation has been committed to helping children and young people in difficult situations since 1946. In eleven countries around the world, various teams ensure that the disadvantaged have access to education.The Pestalozzi Children's Village in Appenzellerland is a place of intercultural exchange where Swiss school classes and children from Europe meet and an understanding of the foreign is created.In order to show the Swiss population exactly what the activities in the village look like, measures were created to give viewers an understanding of the Children's Village. Virtual reality - the best medium for emotionsIt all began in April 2016 with an exhibition organized to mark the 70th anniversary. It presented the history of the village and its current commitment. "It was clear that we wanted to engage people on an emotional level," explains Remo Schläpfer, Head of Media and Campaigns at the Pestalozzi Children's Foundation, adding that the history was told in the form of a giant comic strip and virtual reality (VR) was used for the current activities. "As filmmaker Chris Milk said, there is no better medium for evoking emotions and creating empathy," says Remo Schläpfer, explaining that the film "Tanzania - Ezekiel's Dream" shows in 360 degrees what everyday school life is like in the Tanzanian village of Songambele. "Until the middle of the year, the film was shown exclusively in the Children's Village visitor center, where we recreated an African classroom and exhibited objects from the film. Since August, the film has been showing in "we are cinema", the first Swiss virtual reality cinema," reports Schläpfer. The film was also recorded in the BlickVR app and communicated via blick.ch.

A piece of a perfect worldThe feedback on the film and the exhibition was so good that the Pestalozzi team decided to use virtual reality in their nationwide campaign as well. "We have a 360-degree film about our projects at the Pestalozzi Children's Village, in which over 2000 children and young people from Switzerland and other European countries take part every year," explains Schläpfer. In the projects, the children deal with topics such as tolerance, racism and civil courage and learn to live together peacefully. The protagonist of the film is 13-year-old Gabriel. He guides the viewer through the children's village and shows him how the children deal with the serious issues in a very concrete way. The viewer is actively involved and experiences first-hand in an exercise what it means to be teased. Glasses for lead generation"The aim of the campaign was to bring our vision of coexistence closer to people by showing a 'perfect world'," explains Schläpfer. Interested parties could order a pair of Cardboard glasses to watch the VR film. "This allowed us to generate high-quality leads and interested parties received a branded product that they can use again," explains Schläpfer, adding that the new contacts will now be integrated into the usual online communication in the form of a "welcome series". The aim is to retain the new contacts in the long term and win them over as donors.With support"In addition to numerous advertising materials, we focused on public relations work during the campaign and were actively supported by our celebrity ambassadors," explains Schläpfer. For example, the well-known TV presenter Marco Fritsche. He acted in the film himself and also put on a radio show with the children. The campaign also included two stand campaigns to raise awareness of the work of the Pestalozzi Children's Village among passers-by. "Ambassador Dominique Rinderknecht was present in Zurich and Marco Fritsche in St. Gallen. There, passers-by had the opportunity to watch the movie "Tanzania - Ezekiel's Dream" in 360 degrees using Samsung GearVR glasses. At the same time, they could order Cardboard glasses on tablets or on their own smartphone and watch the second film 'Kinderdorf 360' from the comfort of their own home," says Schläpfer, explaining the campaign. With over 3,000 pairs of glasses ordered and an above-average response rate for the online and offline measures, the campaign was a complete success.