The world’s first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) auction of an advertising campaign closes on Monday morning (9th) and it’s all for a good cause.
Ekstasy, an award-winning London based creative advertising agency, launched the NFT auction to support food charity Magic Breakfast. It is the first creative advertising agency to raise money for a charity in this innovative way. The winning bidder will win a campaign created by Ekstasy that consists of TV, digital out of home and radio advertising. This is a new and exciting way to raise money for charity. The NFT ad campaign, consisting of three assets (TV 30 sec, digital out of home 10 sec and radio ads 30 sec), will be auctioned via Opensea.io.
Magic Breakfast is a charity that provides nutritious breakfasts to around 170,000 vulnerable children each school day. There are an estimated 2 million children in the UK at risk of starting the day hungry. Since its launch 20 years ago, Magic Breakfast has been providing schoolchildren in disadvantaged areas of the UK with healthy breakfasts to ensure they have the energy and nutrition to make the most of their morning lessons. A hungry child cannot focus on their learning, which can negatively impact their educational attainment and may, in the long run, affect their professional careers.
Child hunger has reached a crisis point this year, with a growing awareness of the issue facing families throughout the UK. Earlier this year, Magic Breakfast teamed up with footballer and anti-poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford and Macmillan Children’s Books to donate 50,000 books to children in their partner schools to launch The Marcus Rashford Book Club to help reach children who may not have access to books at home.
Funds raised from the sale of the NFTs created by Ekstasy will allow the charity to continue to work towards its mission that no child is too hungry to learn.
Magic Breakfast is a cause close to the heart of Ekstasy’s Founder and CEO, Mike Saraswat. Mike faced food insecurity whilst in his first year of university and found that his learning was impacted due to lack of food. He says, “I relied on one meal a day for several months and would ask for extra fries at the university cafe so that I would not have to buy dinner. I was already extremely hungry due to lack of breakfast; launching this NFT is my way of giving back”. Mike now runs Ekstasy, a successful agency, and wanted to give back by shining a light on this topic using the medium of cutting edge NFT technology.
On the campaign, Mike said, “The dreams of so many young children are being hindered by lack of good meals, especially breakfast, which we know helps children to focus during lessons and make the most of their education. Magic Breakfast is a fantastic charity, and I am delighted to be helping them raise funds and awareness for their cause using the new-age medium of NFTs. Technology has the potential for good if used with the right intent.”
Emily Wilkie, Head of Fundraising at Magic Breakfast said, “We are so grateful to Ekstasy for drawing attention to the urgent issue of child hunger in the UK. A healthy breakfast can have a transformative effect on a hungry child’s ability to learn and enjoy their mornings at school. Money raised from the auction will allow Magic Breakfast to reach even more children at risk of morning hunger and ensure that no child in our partner schools is too hungry to learn.”
