M&C Saatchi creates a Magnificent Memory Machine to help CanTeen’s kids with cancer

In the aftermath of the two devastating earthquakes that rocked Canterbury all of New Zealand rallied behind an effort to help the residents resurrect their homes and rebuild their lives. This also meant there was a large drop in donations towards various charities, including CanTeen, M&C Saatchi’s charity client which helps young people living with cancer.

The challenge was to increase CanTeen’s brand awareness, and encourage people to donate to its cause. An extremely difficult task given New Zealanders had already given so much to help the residents of Canterbury.

The idea: Young people with cancer have to live with horrible memories everyday. Like the day they were diagnosed, undergoing surgery on the same night their friends were going to the school ball, or the moment they lost their best friend, brother or sister. While the general public may not share the same difficulties as CanTeen members, they too have horrible memories that they’d rather not have. So M&C created a steam punk inspired Magnificent Memory Machine. One that swaps your bad memories for fantastic new ones.

Users were asked to enter their bad memory into the machine; the machine destroyed it, and printed a great new one on a ticket. While the physical machine toured NZ, the agency created a virtual machine that lived on Facebook as an app. It operated the exact same way and was available to swap memories any time of the day or night. Users were asked to text a unique code to activate the machine. Texts cost $3, which went directly to CanTeen to help young people with cancer get great new memories of their own.

Client: CanTeen – Kimberley Waters

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