Concern digital campaign features animated cowpea

Howard Lake | 4 October 2013 | News

Concern Worldwide is using an animated Malama Cowpea as the face of its digital campaign to persuade the Prime Minister to spend pledged funds on tackling undernutrition. The ‘Counting Cowpeas’ campaign will run over the next six months.
The Malala Cowpea is a nutritious bean that grows well in harsh conditions and whose leaves, roots and pods can also be eaten. Cowpea cultivation plays a part in Concern’s work.

Nutrition for Growth

The campaign follows the June 2013 pre-G8 Nutrition for Growth conference at which governments, developing countries, NGOs and the private sector committed £2.7 billion to tackle undernutrition amongst the most vulnerable people in the world between now and 2020.
Concern says that it is committed to spending £38.3 million by 2016 on projects to tackle undernutrition and so is calling on the UK Government to start spending the £375 million they have pledged too.

Digital campaign

The animated Malama Cowpea is communicating these messages with Concern’s supporters in a video and via email. Her message is that small things, like cowpeas and letters to the goverment, can make a big difference to people’s lives.
As well as developing a custom tab on its Facebook page, Concern will also feature the campaign on the Care2.com and Change.org platforms.
Malama Cowpea will be the voice of Concern’s Twitter account throughout October.
Supporters will be encouraged to share Malama’s message and video via Facebook and Twitter.
Supporters will also be asked to email or tweet their local MP with the video featuring Malama Cowpea.
An infographic dedicated to the campaign will also be used to generate interest in print and online media outlets.
Whenever a supporter takes one of these actions, 10 cowpeas will be added to Concern’s virtual cooking pot. When 200,000 cowpeas are collected, a real-life version of the pot will be presented by Concern supporters to Mr Cameron at 10 Downing Street, to demonstrate the level of public support for this campaign.
The campaign has a direct fundraising element too. Through Malama Cowpea, Concern is aiming to sign up 12,000 new supporters and to raise £22,000.

Digital agency Nonsense

Concern worked with digital marketing agency Nonsense to create the ‘Counting Cowpeas’ campaign.
Creative Director at Nonsense, Rob Mosley said: “Global hunger is such a massive issue people think there’s nothing they can do about it. When we read about the power of the tiny little cowpea, we knew we’d found a ‘spokesbean’ that would make people feel they could actually make a difference. Go Malama Cowpea!”
 
 

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.