Microsoft
THE RIO 2016 OLYMPICS// DIGITAL COMIC BOOK & AVATAR GENERATOR
In a world inundated with people asking for support for their selected cause, how do you get them to actually pay attention to your cause? This project had its fair share of obstacles right out of the gate. Working with a deadline like the start of the Olympics means there’s no wiggle room. Our project was intended to support a crowdfunding platform that was being built from scratch in Brazil simultaneously with our project. This was a Portuguese-first website so learning a new culture was part of the package. Uphold the Microsoft priority to keep accessibility at the forefront of our execution.
PURPOSE
Make a difference for youth in Brazil
Use digital channels to support a crowdfunding movement for Olympic athletes and their causes
Coincide with the start of the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro
Generate engagement to increase awareness and activation
solution
Create one responsive website with lots of opportunities for conversation and interaction. Treat the new site as a hub for jumping to fun ways of learning about the importance of what the Olympic athletes are doing for Brazilian youth. Create a highly sharable game-type experience that reinforced the positive nature of the causes.
outcome
We launched the first fully accessible digital comic which my team wrote, illustrated, designed, recorded, and built. This new approach to digital comics helped continue bringing awareness to the need for accessibility in our digital world.
We also built an avatar generator (based on the comic book) that quickly became the addiction of the office and other teams as word spread of its fun and the cause it supported. The possibilities were endless with the randomizer and this was also a fully accessible experience. Additionally, the pieces of the avatar were turned into clipart that was incorporated into a partnership with PicsArt.
The website launch generated the need for a marketing campaign in which my team built billboard ads (digital & print), digital animations for the cube in Times Square, an email campaign, and we worked with several Microsoft stores to showcase the avatar generator in both their window displays and their in-store interactive areas.
Although the crowdfunding platform was only live for a few weeks all of our efforts were able to raise more than R $200,000 in just a few weeks and 4,000 young people benefited from the support.
