A 10-Year-Old Influencer Chatpat, Leading A Unique Fundraising Campaign

Swati Bhattacharya, Creative Chairperson, FCB India recently spoke to BW Marketing World on their new campaign for SOS Children’s Villages India which is getting noticed for its storyline and impact. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Tell us about Chatpat? And why did you think of a 10 yr old character for the campaign?

Once we knew we needed someone to take the story of SOS Children’s Villages India ahead, we also knew who the person who gets affected most by the work that this organisation does all over the world is, and the answer is the child. The child who had been left alone, sometimes because of circumstances, sometimes because of poverty, sometimes because the child is an orphan, sometimes because the families can’t afford to keep the child, or because of urban migration. So, the idea was to get a child to wake up the world with the notion that if we don't raise our children, the streets will. When Kartikeya Tiwari, the National Creative Director, Kinnect, who worked with me, shared this line, I knew that this line was the creative idea for the campaign, and that's how we structured the strategy. Amit Roy, a famous director and cinematographer popularly known for his films such as Sarkar Raj, Ishk Vishk etc., was onboarded to help us with the video production of this campaign. Amit, along with the creative team at Kinnect & FCB, started their search for this child from vulnerable sections of the society who could be the right voice for us. After almost auditioning 100+ kids, we found our perfect match, Chatpat. 

How did you conceptualise 'Chatpat'?

The campaign was conceptualized to call attention to the problems faced by vulnerable children; NO CHILD ALONE is a campaign, or rather an effort, to iterate that even a small donation could make a big difference in helping SOS Children’s Villages India give them a better life.

The 10-year-old, Chatpat started baring his life on the streets, online. We created an Instagram handle under the name ‘chatpatkagyaan’ where this 10-year-old made videos highlighting the quirks he learned on the streets. His 'nuggets of wisdom' included 'teaching' his followers how to live in Mumbai rent-free and find the resources necessary to survive. While his innocent videos won hearts and his handle amassed a following of 20k within just two days, they also called for attention to the harsh reality of surviving on the streets. This was followed by SOS Children’s Villages of India announcing him as their brand ambassador. 

How did the Chatpat campaign go? Was it successful in raising funds for SOS Children’s Villages?

When we first got a call from SOS Children’s Villages India saying they wanted to do a campaign, a few things were essential. First, SOS is a quiet organisation; I don’t think they like to speak much about their work. SOS Children’s Villages are helping hundreds of thousands of children, young people and families providing quality care, empowering families and communities and helping to ensure children’s rights are met. 

Looking at the history of their campaigns, some have worked for them but still there has been lack of awareness towards the organisation and its incredible work.

We did not have any budgets to go on a large scale using a celebrity approach to raise awareness, hence we worked on the idea of who better could advocate for the children’s rights than a child himself. That’s how our Chatpat was born. 

This unique fundraiser campaign till date has been a huge success leading to a dozen of brands lending support towards the organisation in just two months of its execution and impacted more than 1500 children till date.

. Will we see a second leg to the campaign as it went viral and grabbed headlines?

Well, it’s just been two months, and I must say, not only has Chatpat helped with grassroot funding but also funding from corporates. We have seen some generous funding from brands like CRED, Tide, Liril, Good Knight and artists like Raftaar who supported and donated money.

 How has the agency ecosystem impacted by challenges posed by covid?

Fewer corridor conversations. Less jamming on things together. In some ways, more focus on work and less on team building, but yes, creatively, these last two years have been satisfying because work was the only way we could sniff some normal.

 What is your advice to brands looking to develop clutter-breaking campaigns in an era where attention span is less than 8 seconds?

My advice to brands looking to develop clutter-breaking campaigns is that they don’t just be clutter-breaking for the sake of it as you are not an entertainment channel that has been brought to you by this brand. I think it’s imperative that a brand understands its purpose because once you know what your purpose is and what you want to do with it and who you want to connect with, then a beautiful campaign moves people, and people enjoy it. That can happen, but it just can’t be like, ‘oh, let me do something clutter-breaking today’.