Make-A-Wish Aotearoa launches new fundraising campaign ‘The Waiting Room’ via Chemistry

Make-A-Wish’s mission is to grant life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses, believing that a wish can provide hope, strength and joy for not only the child, but also their families, volunteers, donors and the broader community. In partnership with full-service agency Chemistry, Make-A-Wish Aotearoa is shining a light on the urgent need for support, launching a powerful new campaign ‘The Waiting Room’.

Since opening in 1986, Make-A-Wish Aotearoa has granted thousands of wishes for critically ill Kiwi kids – thanks to the generosity of donors and volunteers. Right now, they are actively working on 170 wishes. But unfortunately, 70 more remain on hold due to a lack of funding.

It was this statistic that inspired the team at Chemistry to develop The Waiting Room. Working closely with the Make-A-Wish Aotearoa team, they identified some of the most common wishes amongst Kiwi kids, featuring everything from superheroes and fairy parties, to meet-and-greets with famous sporting and musical heroes, through to firefighter and pilot experiences.

Extravagantly dressed, shot for real and featuring Kiwi personalities like singer, Michael Murphy and football ref, Beth Rattray, The Waiting Room features 20 of the most common wishes waiting to be granted. Combined with the hard-hitting message around the 70 wishes on hold, the hope is that Kiwis will rally together to help clear the waiting room and bring joy to the lives of our most vulnerable Kiwis.

“Our mission is to grant the wish of every eligible child – and Chemistry’s proven ability to create powerful donation campaigns made them the clear choice,” said Melinda Seal, Head of Fundraising at Make-A-Wish Aotearoa. “The Waiting Room is a completely fresh approach to fundraising for Make-A-Wish Aotearoa and we can’t wait to see the impact it has around the country.”

Beatrice Bearne, Business Director at Chemistry, shared her excitement: “It’s an honour to work with such an impactful New Zealand charity. The work they do to bring joy to Kiwi children and families during such challenging times is deeply inspiring. The Waiting Room combines bold creative with top-tier fundraising efforts to hopefully deliver outstanding results for Make-A-Wish Aotearoa.”

The campaign will span OOH, print, digital, social and radio across May. Plus, after appearing in the campaign and being impacted by the work Make-A-Wish Aotearoa do, NZ musician Michael Murphy wrote and recorded a song. Aptly named “The Waiting Room”, the song features Michael’s eight-year-old son Archie, whose best friend had one of his wishes come true thanks to Make-A-Wish Aotearoa

LISTEN TO ‘THE WAITING ROOM’ SONG HERE

Could you help us clear the waiting room? Donations can be made online at makeawish.org.nz

Client: Make-A-Wish Aotearoa
Head of Fundraising: Melinda Seal
Communications & Marketing Lead: Jade Fernandes
Integrated Fundraising Lead: Sarah Collins
Agency – Chemistry
Executive Creative Director – Sarah Chernishov
Executive Creative Director – Matt Watts
Business Director – Beatrice Bearne
Business Executive – Brikshya Adhikari
Designer – Nicolaas Adams
Media Lead – John Baker
Photographer – Ethan Lowry

Special thanks to media partners:
JCDecaux
Stuff NZ
NZME
Media Works
oOh! Media
Are Media
Hyper Media

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