Wildcats: #HeyFutureMe, a Message to Future Selves

By late 2021 young people in Vietnam and Thailand had spent almost two years with their plans on hold. Wildcats, the global platform and incubator, wanted to reconnect with Gen Z at exactly that moment and encourage them to imagine and create their own futures rather than wait for certainty to return.

The mechanic was simple and personal: on a microsite, users could write a message to their future selves, see it illustrated as an inspiring drawing, and receive it back a year later. The campaign needed participation quickly, from an audience that ignores advertising, on a modest budget.

The strategy was word of mouth rather than reach. A message to your future self is intimate, and it spreads when it comes from someone you follow and trust rather than from a brand. Ruder Finn Era curated a list of Gen Z nano-influencers in each market whose audiences matched the intended participants.

The team created 60 pieces of content in two weeks, tuned to Vietnamese and Thai Gen Z sensibilities and designed to trigger curiosity and participation on Instagram. The concentrated burst lifted participation sharply within the first fortnight and delivered more than 710 messages to the platform.