# Aviva avoids “doing a Hoover” in Twitter fundraiser for Railway Children resulting in c£100k raised in a day

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/02/25/aviva-avoids-doing-hoover-twitter-fundraiser-railway-children-resulting-c100k-raised-day/
- Published: 2013-02-25T18:08:47+00:00
- Author: John Thompson

**I’ve been planning to review how Twitter is being used by corporate fundraisers
as an aid to attracting corporate partners and as a medium through which to augment
and communicate existing partnerships. However, as an interim measure,  due to a
recent event, I thought I’d offer a quick word of warning regarding the communication
of solicitation statements and notifiable amounts via Twitter, especially in relation
to commercial participator campaigns.**

> Hang on a minute? Has Aviva set a lower and upper limit for this partnership?

## #1every5

On Saturday 23^(rd) February I received a retweet publicising Aviva’s pledge to 
donate £1 to Railway Children for **every **tweet made during that day that included
the hashtag #1every5. So, Twitter being Twitter, with a couple of quick prods I’d
helped raise a few quid for an amazing charity and hoped my followers and their 
followers etc would continue the process. 

## Advertisement

However, back in the more plodding pace of Non-Twitter City, I suddenly thought “
Hang on a minute? Has Aviva set a lower and upper limit for this partnership? What
if there are millions of tweets?

After a bit of Googling and digging, I managed to discover that, in fact, a cap 
of £18k had been set. Back now on Twitter it soon became clear that others were 
probing whether Aviva had intended a “sky’s the limit” amount (unlikely and unrealistic,
but…), with others accusing the company of being “measly” and engaging in a PR stunt.
Indeed, by this time, way before the “day” was out, the £18k cap had already been
exceeded, fuelled by retweets made by many celebrities, broadcasters and Aviva-sponsored
Norwich City footballers with a combined reach of millions of followers.

But, with the cap in mind, I wondered if  there was any point in continuing to add#
1every5 in one’s tweets.

## Tweeted the company

Feeling this could all turn a bit sour for all involved, I did a few things. I called
and left a message with Aviva’s out-of-hours press office pointing out that its 
tweets implied a £1 donation for ALL #1every5 inclusive tweets but didn’t mention
the limit. I also tweeted the company with my concerns suggesting it references 
the upper limit or be bound by the eventual outcome. I even emailed Howard Lake 
to see if he could forward my concerns to any contacts he might have, which he kindly
obliged with.

You see, at the end of the day, the Charities Act makes it quite clear what’s expected
from a commercial participator when it comes to communicating its support for a 
charity through such promotions that require a donor to do something to trigger 
a donation. In a nutshell (and see link below), such communications must be very
clear and specify any restrictions e.g. any financial caps, duration of promotion,
etc, etc. In this instance, whilst there was a condition, the £18k cap, the initiating
and subsequent retweets made no reference to this.

Of course, with an allowance of only 140 characters, Twitter doesn’t easily avail
itself to what might appear as over-cumbersome messages and providing a separate
link to T&Cs might be anathema to the free-flowing and expedient nature of the medium.
But, if you can’t make your “tweet sweet” it might be wise to chose another mechanism.

## Compliance benefits everybody

Of course the requirement for compliance benefits everybody: the charity, the company
and, of course, the donor that, innocently and in good faith, responds to such messages
at the mere press of a button.  In this instance, most donors would have expected
a quid to be donated for every tweet without pausing to think. In this instance,
the tweets were quite clear in saying that would be the case, however implausible
that might have been.

> forgetting the most basic requirement to communicate a clear statement could have
> proved very costly in more ways than one

As it turns out, so overwhelming was the response to this programme, Aviva decided
to scrap the cap and today announced that it would honour all #1every5 tweets resulting
in a whooping £97,774 for this wonderful charity.

However, I’m still left wondering how the company may have responded if #1every5
had been included in several million tweets or more.  Was the eventual near 100k
RTs a more palatable/affordable amount given the likely backlash if it had stuck
to the cap?* Indeed, I even saw one tweeter joking that this campaign could bankrupt
the company, mentioning that they were a competitor and urging his followers to 
RT!  That too included #1every5 in its body.

To conclude, whilst a PR disaster was averted and the outcome fantastic; the charity
getting five times more than it expected and Aviva looking great for donating nearly
£100k to this wonderful cause, forgetting the most basic requirement to communicate
a clear statement could have proved very costly in more ways than one. The nightmare
scenario could have seen Aviva  “_doing a Hoover_”.

> Aviva giving £1 to Charity for every tweet of this hashtag [#1every5](https://twitter.com/search/%231every5)
> <- They’re a competitor to my client. Bankrupt them for a good cause.
> — Le Grove (@LeGrove) [February 23, 2013](https://twitter.com/LeGrove/status/305303564929073153)

[**Aviva donates £97,774 to charity Railway Children after extraordinary success of Twitter** **campaign**](http://www.aviva.com/media/news/item/aviva-donates-97774-to-charity-railway-children-after-extraordinary-success-of-twitter-campaign-17098/)

[**Commercial Participators – Institute of Fundraising**](http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/guidance/code-of-fundraising-practice/legal-appendices/l90-commercial-participators/)

*As an aside, do these campaigns always seem to tail-off near the 100k mark?

## More posts from John Thompson

> [From Cash Mobs to Cause Mobs](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/07/09/could-slowly-growing-craze-cash-mobs-inspire-cause-mobs/)

> [Charities working in partnership with companies must reserve their right to slam](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/10/22/charities-working-partnership-with-retailers-must-reserve-their-right-slam/)

 * **[Fundraising Ireland conference 2013](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/03/28/fundraising-ireland-conference-2013-543/)**(
   28 March 2013)
 * **[Can you get withdrawal from Twitter?](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/07/24/can-you-get-withdrawal-twitter/)**(
   24 July 2013)
 * **[O2 helps Battersea Dogs & Cats Home to be more dog](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/12/19/o2-helps-battersea-dogs-cats-home-dog/)**(
   19 December 2013)