Farplace tests humorous text donation campaign in gents toilets
Howard Lake | 11 February 2011 | News
Farplace Animal Rescue, the no kill animal sanctuary, has launched a new text message campaign designed to encourage younger people to donate to the charity.
Using Vir2’s service, the charity uses several posters designed to solicit a smile and a donation.
For gents’ toilets, the poster has a large picture of a rooster and reads ‘From one cock to another…. his future is in your hands’ and encourages a text of COCK to 70700 to donate £5. Of this, the charity sees at least £4.45.
Using the same keyword, there is also a calling card that people can hand to friends saying “MADE A COCK UP? UPSET A FRIEND? Text COCKUP to 70700 to donate £5 to Farplace Animal Rescue (giving at least £4.45 to the charity) and hand this card to them to say sorry. Keep this card to hand to a friend when you make your next cock up.”
Gareth Edwards, chair of the trustees, said: “All too often, charities look boring and worthy to younger people with no sense of humour. We hope to change this with our new campaign.”
There is also a “more refined” version, says Edwards, with the headline ‘FOR LESS THAN THE PRICE OF A COCKTAIL, YOU CAN HELP ANIMALS’ and the word COCKTAIL as the key text and COCKEREL for the website.
Edwards commented: “By using a variety of add-ons to our four-letter key word, we can accurately test which of our marketing tests is working – we have high hopes for the gents’ toilets campaign as we hope making men smile might encourage them to give to a charity they wouldn’t normally consider.”
www.farplace.org.uk
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.