CASE STUDY: How P&G and the Red Cross turned fashion into necessities for typhoon survivors

Aid Couture aimed to transform these clothes into daily essentials for the victims.

Execution
After washing the donated clothes (with Ariel detergent and Downy fabric conditioner), stylists created fashionable ensembles, which were then sold at a 'preloved' clothing sale in Alabang Town Center.

The event also provided live styling service by celebrity stylists Paulo Castro and Jujiin Samonte, as well as fashion gurus from Preview magazine, who helped walk-in buyers select suitable clothes.

The event received promotion through social media, press, posters and TV show features. A microsite showed consumers how the clothes were being transformed.

The project also provided real-time updates on-site as well as via mobile and the microsite, to track the purchases and the funds raised.

Results
The event received donated items from celebrities such as Ruffa Gutierrez, Victor Basa and Angel Jacob, which helped to attract consumers.

Over the course of two days, Aid Couture raised almost 600,000 pesos (US$45,300) from clothes that would otherwise have been left rotting in warehouses.

The real-time purchase converter summarised this as amounting to 8,610 hot meals, 2,640 bottles of water, 255 medicine kits, 372 wound cleanser kits, 597 blanket and mat sets, 258 mosquito nets, 157 hygiene kits and 375 food supply packs.

Thanks to its success, the event will now become a regular effort to provide relief to calamity victims.