Geometry Global‘s Prague office was on a mission; they had to determine if they could use second-hand clothes to raise the money and create awareness for the Salvation Army’s second-hand stores during Christmas. The solution: Wrapping paper created from second hand clothing donated to the Salvation Army to create something unique, while also reducing wastage of paper.
On December 17, the Salvation Army set up a wrapping service at one of the busiest shopping malls in Prague providing the gift-wrapping made from second-hand clothing.
According to a release, the event was successful: “After the first couple of hours, we had to get two extra people to help on the spot – the Salvation Army wrapping service was getting really crowded. Every 2.5 minute we had a new present wrapped. This shopping mall has 60 000 visitors on average days, and the last Saturday before Christmas there were much more,” it stated. “The world’s most eco-friendly wrapping service sold 6 times more clothes then the Salvation Army store. The client is so happy they want to have it every Christmas.”
Pavla Vopelakova, the Salvation Army PR manager added, “Wrapping gifts into second-hand clothes might seem unusual and we were not sure how it would work in real life. But we at ReShare Store liked the idea straight away and so did people at the shopping mall. You should have seen how much attention everyone paid to the whole wrapping process. Everyone simply loved it. The environmental aspect as well.”
DIVERGE talked to the Creative Director of Geometry Global’s Prague office, Julia Dovlatova, to find out how they solved the problem.
Where did the idea come from?
As ever – best ideas come from well-defined problems.
We co-operated with the Salvation Army in the past helping them with collecting warm clothes for winter; this year, however, we discovered an opposite and bigger problem they’ve had for quite a while: too many clothes.
That’s something people usually don’t realize: the Salvation Army needs to sell donated clothing so to raise enough funds to help people in need be back into society, to normal lives – rather then being dressed warm enough to survive yet another winter.
People are good, we donate quite a lot – and fast fashion only accelerates the cycle, leaving the Salvation Army with tons of donated clothing every year. A couple of years ago the Salvation Army in Holland (the division that’s also responsible for the Czech Republic) started a chain of second-hand ReShare Stores; the second half of 2016 they launched the first two stores in the Czech Republic, one in Prague (June 1st), and in a small town nearby (December 1st) – with the vision of opening up to 20 new stores in CZ within next 5 years.
Christmas is indeed a great time for charities. Not the best season for selling second-hand clothes though…
So the brief we wrote together with the Salvation Army was very simple:
How can we use second-hand clothes to raise the money and create awareness for the SA second-hand stores during Christmas?
Us being us – the agency that aims to actively influence people’s behaviour – we looked closely at the Christmas shopping craze and the routine people go through. We knew we needed to find just the right moment to introduce the second-hand clothes. We reminded ourselves of a well-known pattern: during Christmas people go crazy on buying brand-new things – and then they wrap them.
BINGO.
We felt straight away the idea of wrapping presents using second-hand clothes should work. It took us a couple of weeks, however, to learn the way of how to make it real and beautiful. It was when we learnt about FUROSHIKI – a square piece of cloth that Japanese used for carrying and wrapping goods for centuries – that made us confident, that in fact, almost every piece of clothing can easily be turned into a beautiful wrapping material – given it’s thin and colorful enough.
And when we discovered the amount of wrapping paper waste during Christmas, we couldn’t believe the numbers.
The Salvation Army guys were just as amazed – that was another reason why the idea of the second-hand wrapping service was so much liked from the beginning. Not only it helps raising money for people in need, it also spares our planet lots of waste. The Salvation Army feels responsible for both people – and the planet.
What kind of feedback did you receive?
Client is very happy and would love the Salvation Paper to become a Christmas tradition all round the world. The results from our one day pop-up wrapping stall are convincing enough for the client to consider repeating it on a much bigger scale in the Czech Republic, Holland and Slovakia next year – with hopes to making it global.
How were you able to help others?
The first ever second-hand wrapping service raised 6 times more money then the store; imagine second-hand wrapping services each year during Christmas all over the world.
