Dougray Scott to voice reworked British Red Cross TV advert
Howard Lake | 24 August 2006 | News
The British Red Cross is revamping its direct response TV advert, using the voice of Hollywood actor Dougray Scott, one of the charity’s ambassadors, and music by Beethoven. For the first time, the advert will drive viewers to the Red Cross website, as well as featuring the telephone number.
The advert, to be launched in September, will highlight the work of the Red Cross in the UK as well as overseas, and it’s role as a crisis response organisation.
The updated version will be tested against the original concept entitled ‘”Where were you?” developed by Watson Philips Norman over a year ago. Building on the strengths of the existing advert, the new version asks the public for a regular gift of £2 per month by direct debit.
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“Where were you?” will be broadcast during the day on 11 satellite and digital stations including Sky News, E4 and UK Style. The charity hopes that the new advert will increase return on investment by 10 per cent compared to the existing DRTV advert. Creative updates for the advert have been handled in-house, with the production and media buying work being carried out by Mediacom.
Sarah Jones, new donor acquisition senior executive at British Red Cross said: “The new and improved DRTV advert is part of an overall strategy to increase the number of regular givers to the Red Cross. We have used DRTV for many years; we know it works for us and is a cost-effective way of recruiting new donors.
“This advert is the culmination of years of experience of DRTV and our knowledge of the techniques that makes it so effective. We anticipate that this will be our most successful advert to date.”
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.