ActionAid supporters are happy!
Howard Lake | 21 January 2011 | Blogs
Very interesting approach of ActionAid’s new campaign “What a Feeling” resonated in few interesting blog posts this week.
On Monday the charity has organised an off-line event called Happy Bubble to respond to the Blue Monday’s depressive moods. The campaign website allows its users to test their emotions and potentially get involved. Their viral video makes the entire approach even more visible.
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So what are the initial reactions? I have saved a few tweets from the launch day here, but it looks like bloggers also react to the idea.
Ken Burnett posted already on Monday. He thinks the idea is good and will work. He even considers potential criticism:
“There will be detractors. Their big accusation will be that this idea won’t work, by which they mean that it won’t work in terms of immediate income now. I refute this on three grounds, all of which require that we take a longer-term view with our donors. We need to think of donors in terms of their lifetime value, not just their latest gift, we should learn to measure not just money now but a host of other important if intangible progresses, such as building trust, commitment, future intentions and giving pleasure, and we need to stop always asking for money. What kind of a friend always asks me for money? We need to appreciate, sometimes, that less is more.”
Rob Dyson has posted his thoughts today:
“Overall, I think it’s a ripe time to test a change in direction. By leading with Western middle-Englanders – as opposed to images of children and families in developing countries, or depicting poverty – ActionAid UK could be masterly capturing the illusive incentive to a Big Society. If charity is fatigued, perhaps the future of fundraising will be driven by who gives the best supporter care and delivers the best ‘experience’.”
Ross McCulloch posted guest content from Andrew Robinson, Campaign Manager with ActionAid:
“The big insight for us came simply from talking with our supporters. We spoke to a lot of people but the thing that came up again and again was that, whilst they were concerned about making the biggest amount of difference to as many people as possible, they all recognised that they got as much, if not more, back than what they gave in time and money.
What our supporters got back wasn’t material, but was a whole range of really powerful emotions. In some case (like Silvia who features in our advertising) what they experienced inspired them to completely change their lives. We realised we were a conduit to helping people discover something really profound and really amazing and we wanted to celebrate that.”
Andrew Robinson is also explaining the approach in more detail:
“We tested the idea with our supporters in a few ways. We started by asking people on Facebook and got some great responses. We made a film of what our supporters felt about ActionAid. We then emailed our supporters and asked them to watch the film and then tell us how it feels for them. You can see the most recent responses here. All of these things came together to indicate that we had a proposition that really resonates.
The campaign is out now in a whole range of media including tube cards, cross track, press, radio, inserts and online (including social media). We also kicked off the campaign with our Happy Bubble event near Liverpool Street station where we tried to bring to life some of incredible feelings that our supporters described – like using a space hopper to recreate Jono’s little leap or a big blue monster for Sarah’s warm hug.”
It’s really exciting to watch this innovative campaign unfolding. Voice was working on preparing the ActionAid supporter care team specifically on Facebook conversations and management of social media relationships, so we are very, very eager to see more and more reactions on the topic!
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.