At the heart of Royale’s ambitious 25-day fundraising effort is “The Bell Ringer,” a delightfully humorous animated short about Edith, a sweet old lady who sets up shop on a busy street corner to raise money for charity.
“Our goal is to raise $10K by January 11th, 2013," remarks Royale Partner/Creative Director Jayson Whitmore. "By the end of this campaign, we hope to present The Red Cross with a check -- signed by Royale on behalf of our clients, family and friends -- for an amount that exceeds our fundraising goal; and as an added bonus, we’ll even up the ante and create an alternate ending to ‘The Bell Ringer’ as a special thank-you to those who joined our cause.”
The animated story of Edith, altruistic bell ringer, embarks in a faraway land on a wintry city sidewalk. After many fruitless attempts at ringing in the spirit of giving, Edith becomes so frustrated that she hurls her bell at the next uncaring passerby, causing a coin to curiously bounce her way. Ignored yet again, she throws her bell at another passerby, this time yielding even more coins. By the end of the film, Edith’s red canister is brimming with coins -- even an engagement ring -- as the pull-out reveals a row of victimless donors knocked out cold for a noble cause.
Viewers now have the choice to avoid a similar holiday fate. Clicking “No Thanks” prompts Edith to throw her bell at the screen (making it go black) before picking it back up and trying again; clicking “Yes” will direct users to a credit card page (hosted by stripe.com) where they may enter predetermined donation amounts of $5, $10, $50 or “other." A linear version of the campaign is hosted on Vimeo [2], which can be embedded on blogs and social networks such as Facebook to encourage sharing.
To get the full digital experience of "The Bell Ringer" and make a donation, visit: www.weareroyale.com/thebellringer [3]
Holiday animations and charity have become a Royale tradition. Following the viral success of last year's holiday short, "Impossible Present," as well as their holiday party where art by the artists of Royale was auctioned off for charity, Royale saw a unique opportunity to do something special this year by incorporating a fundraising component that would reach the anticipated viewership of the “The Bell Ringer.”
“With crowdfunding trending, and successful interactive campaigns like Old Spice utilizing the Vimeo platform, we thought, ‘let’s throw in our hat and take a different creative approach,’ which is to make a piece that calls the viewer to action," remarks Partner/Executive Producer Jen Lucero.
Royale helmed the entire project in-house, from story development, character modeling and animation, to creating all of the interactive components. To conceive the character of the Edith, the company partners invited their staff to submit their ideas, which were then developed into the final. Tony Morales composed the music and sound design.
“This campaign is about doing something good for people with what our team loves creatively,” concludes Holman. “We feel very lucky for all of the love we’ve received from clients and friends. Any way we can give back to charity or the community -- and have fun ourselves doing it -- is definitely something we very much enjoy. That’s pretty much our whole M.O. as a company.”
Source: Royale
Links:
[1] http://www.weareroyale.com/
[2] http://vimeo.com/53978551
[3] http://www.weareroyale.com/thebellringer