Comic Relief seeks free advertising from supporters
Howard Lake | 7 February 2005 | News
Once again Comic Relief is seeking free advertising space in the run up to Red Nose Day.
It is contacting print and online publishers by email with details of three print adverts and three banner adverts that can be used to promote Red Nose Day.
The print adverts feature comedian Graham Norton and can be downloaded from the Red Nose Day site.
Advertisement
Similarly, online publishers can use three banner adverts, available in 468 x 60 (banner), 120 x 90 (button), and 120 x 600 (skyscraper) sizes.
![[button]](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/graphics/comicrelief2005/button_120x90.gif)
![[banner]](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/graphics/comicrelief2005/banner_468x60.gif)
![[skyscraper]](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/graphics/comicrelief2005/skyscraper_120x600.gif)
The email campaign is a cold request, sourced from media disk. This is odd given that Comic Relief should have a list of some of the 60,000 website publishers who helped to “Turn the Web Red” in 2001.
Nevertheless, Comic Relief once again demonstrate how it is possible to ask and secure considerable free publicity both online and offline. The easier you make it for publishers by providing ready to use content the more likely it is they will use the material.
This lesson could have been learned by the DEC recently in its tsunami appeal. The organisation did not make banner and button adverts available for supporters to place on their site.
However, Comic Relief did slip up this year. They made no mention of the web address to which the donated banners should be linked. It might be obvious (www.rednoseday.com) but it makes sense to be absolutely clear.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.