Save the Children Canada - Unboxing Hunger

IAC Submission

Overview

Did you know that 149 million children worldwide suffer from malnutrition every year? Despite the scale of this crisis, most Canadians remain unaware of its growing severity. Save the Children Canada set out to change that with a bold, attention-grabbing campaign designed to make people take notice.

During the 2024 back-to-school season, Save the Children Canada launched the Unboxing Hunger campaign, using a simple yet powerful symbol: a child’s lunchbox. While many Canadians assume their children’s lunchboxes are filled with nutritious meals and snacks, millions of kids around the world face a starkly different reality. This campaign brought that reality to life, showing what a ‘typical’ lunchbox looks like for children struggling with hunger globally.

Beyond raising awareness, Save the Children Canada used this opportunity to highlight how their work is making a tangible difference in the lives of children facing malnutrition—because no child should have to go to school hungry.

The Unboxing Hunger campaign was a social media-led initiative designed to reach Canadian families during the back-to-school season and shed light on the harsh realities of child hunger.

At the heart of the campaign was the Child Hunger Lunch Box—a physical kit that revealed what children in crisis often have to eat, alongside life-saving solutions provided by Save the Children Canada. Each lunch box contained items like dried bitter leaves, contaminated dirty water, rationed rice, Plumpy’Nut nutrition bars, and water purification tablets—offering a stark contrast to the meals many Canadian families take for granted.

To reach our audience, Save the Children used multiple tactics that fit the target’s social media habits. This included enlisting the help of food and lifestyle influencers who unboxed a real Child Hunger Lunch Box for their followers, as well as targeting parents on Pinterest and Instagram who were looking for lunch ideas for their own children.

The various tactics all lead to a campaign landing page (link to savethechildren.ca/unboxinghunger) where visitors could open the Child Hunger Lunch Box for themselves – in a virtual format – to take a closer look at the items and learn more about the organization’s role in fighting child hunger.

Impact:

The social media campaign and strategy successfully amplified awareness on a national scale.

Influencer Impact: Seven influencers helped drive over 7.5 million impressions, sparking meaningful engagement and extending the campaign’s reach.
Social Engagement: Influencer posts generated 250+ direct engagements, fostering deeper audience interaction.
Instagram Success: The campaign delivered over 9 million impressions and 4,600+ clicks, achieving a 0.05% CTR.
Pinterest Performance: With 2.5 million impressions and 8,400 clicks, Pinterest achieved an impressive 0.09% CTR.
Website Traffic & Donations: Though donations weren’t the primary focus, the campaign still drove over 11,000 website visits, with a 10.52% engagement rate and a 0.21% donation conversion rate.

Ultimately, the campaign was a resounding success, not only elevating Save The Children’s presence in Canada but also driving critical awareness around hunger.