World Vision Singapore

Interactive Media Agency Paprika Global Designs World Vision Singapore’s First Online Viral Campaign - “When I Was a Kid”
By Deborah Zhang, World Vision Singapore

In April of this year, Paprika director Darius Chua received a call from an ex-colleague and friend asking him if the agency would like to take on a viral campaign project for World Vision. Darius felt the phone call was a “divine appointment.” He recalls, “We were at that point of time, starting to assess what causes we should work with for this year.”

Paprika Global, a dynamic integrated communications agency known for its excellent creatives, not only serves the Multi National Corporations, but also adopts one charity a year to execute a pro bono web project as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

With over 1,200 needy children still awaiting child sponsorship this year, Paprika agreed to take on the design and execution of an online viral advocacy campaign that would profile the plight of these children living in poverty more prominently among netizens. The end result? An ingenious idea of engaging netizens by having them post their favourite childhood memory, and urging them to be the active agent to create positive childhood memories for needy children around the world.

In an interview with Darius, he shares an intriguing story of his first encounters with World Vision Singapore as a teenager, the motivation for his company’s CSR efforts, and a message of hope for the children Paprika is helping.

World Vision: Tell us how you first heard of World Vision. When was that? Share your story.

Darius: This ignited my interest because as a teenager, I served with my church’s youth group and every year we would set aside some funds for sponsoring a child through World Vision. Our youth leader would occasionally share material that describes the work of World Vision.

Once, the youth leader brought the message of the plight of children in Africa across to the youths by organising a structured experience on food shortage.

Every year, we would hold a youth gathering in church with lots of activities and food. The food would always be a sumptuous spread as everyone chipped in with their mom’s specialty dish. That particular year, we were seated down at several tables. Each table had a mix of one comfortable chair with a full cutlery setting, several plastic chairs with basic setting, and a number of stools with no cutlery. The fortunate few who were seated on the fine chairs were served by waiters and enjoyed restaurant-type meals. Those on plastic chairs had a simple but satisfying meal. Those seated on stools were supplied dry plain crackers. Initially, the governing rule was no sharing of food. After 10 minutes into the meal, the rule was removed.

At first, the dining area was very quiet and the expressions were a mix of guilty pleasure of the privileged few contrasted with the dismay of the many munching on plain crackers. When the rule was removed, the atmosphere lightened and there were a lot more smiles shared around. Later, we were given a dose of sober reality when we heard a talk on famine and malnutrition in Africa. That day, we learnt that we in Singapore are blessed. And the blessed have a responsibility to share with others.

Several years later, I recall encouraging my friends to forego our tradition of buying Christmas gifts so that we could gather the money to sponsor another World Vision child. We ended up making gifts for each other which turned out to be more meaningful and precious than any store-bought items. Christmas became a lot more meaningful when we discovered that the other face of the joy of giving is the blessing of receiving.

These are the experiences in our growing years that have stood us in good stead and have become the social values that we carry with us.

World Vision: What do you hope to see this viral marketing project accomplish?

Darius: Since it is an online viral idea, we hope that more people could be exposed to the campaign as compared to using traditional media. In its concept, the aim is to allow freedom for users to generate their own thoughts and memories. In doing so, they are roused to take action, whether by contributing to the cause or supporting what World Vision does.

World Vision: Tell us what is at the heart of your company's motivation to help charities through the lending of your team's expertise. How does this align with your company's values?

Darius: When Paprika started in 2000, we were determined to run a marketing communications company based on healthy values in both corporate and social terms. The corporate values the founders brought to Paprika were based on our experiences working with enterprise and government clients in the Asia Pacific region. To this, we added our social values from our Christian upbringing.

From a communications perspective, we saw that regardless of belief, place and personality, everyone has a need to be heard… Undergirding all these is the fundamental of communication – I hear you. As we listen, we build trust. With trust, communication becomes open, involved and mutually beneficial. With trust, a relationship is built. This is what we call engagement.

Part of that trust involves behaving responsibly and with integrity, part of it is making wise choices. For example, we make it a point not to work on accounts that promote social vices (i.e. gambling, smoking etc.)

Paprika has been entrusted with talents – talents that we use primarily to achieve tangible business gains. However, these same talents must be encouraged to give back to society as well. I like to think that I’m the kind of boss that encourages his staff to find meaningful activities that goes beyond fulfilling work responsibilities. Hence, we as an organisation or individual must walk the talk. This also explains why we look into doing pro bono causes annually.

World Vision: To the children out there - voiceless and helpless - for whom your project will raise awareness for, what are some words of blessing you'd like to say to them?

Darius: Take heart and know that there are people who care about you. People who desire to make a difference in your lives. One day, you can pass on the blessings to others as well.

Head popping from left: Creative Director - David Tan

On chair: Big Boss Darius Chua

Behind Wall From Top to Bottom:
Media Producer – Chris Luo “Ah Boy”
Art Director – Jean Paolo Ty
Project Manager – Vicki Ong
Senior Copywriter – Christan Sow
Intern – Patrick the PepperStarfish

A snapshot depicting Paprika’s fun-loving, talented and reliable team players.