Wellington City Mission: The Silent Night

The Wellington City Mission strives to ensure that those doing it tough can still enjoy Christmas through various dignity-enhancing initiatives. The aftermath of Covid and a cost-of-living crisis meant they were anticipating a four-fold increase in demand for its services, so a unique approach to fundraising was needed to meet this.
Agency: Special

The Silent Night was a fundraising event held at one of New Zealand’s largest stadiums that people bought tickets to but didn’t attend. The event captured the attention of the nation and became New Zealand’s first ever sold-out event that no one showed up to. By doing so, every dollar spent on tickets went to the Wellington City Mission to fund their various initiatives that ensure all Wellingtonians doing it tough are cared for at Christmas.

The event was promoted and run like any other at the stadium with tickets bought directly through online ticketing platform, Ticketek, at a range of prices and levels.

The event cost $0 to run and sold 37,971 tickets – outselling global acts like Guns n Roses and Queen. This resulted in $332,700 in donations which equates to over $1.1 million in measurable good for Wellington (source: Impact Lab report). The campaign also earned over $1.4 million in media and PR value.