Giving & Volunteering calendar

Novartis wanted to increase awareness of its Giving, Matching and Volunteering program during the end-of-year period, and to motivate employees to actually participate rather than simply know it existed.

December is the worst possible month for that. Every function is running its own end-of-year communication, employees are managing deadlines and leave, and the emotional register the subject deserves is exactly the one that reads as seasonal filler if it is handled badly.

We conceptualized and delivered an interactive digital holiday calendar designed around anticipation and repeat engagement rather than a single announcement.

Each day, employees opened a new door revealing a surprise: short films and stories about the real impact of giving and volunteering, and announcements that Novartis would match employee donations by three or five times. The matching announcements were the mechanism — they gave people a concrete reason to come back and a concrete reason to act, on a specific day.

Beyond the calendar itself, we supported the wider rollout with a coordinated communications campaign: social media posts, digital posters and short-form video assets.

Live for one week in December, the calendar generated strong internal buzz, with many employees returning multiple times to discover new content. It attracted over 7,500 unique visits and measurably increased visibility of the giving and volunteering program — showing how a well-designed engagement experience can drive participation and generosity at scale.