AI-managed advertising to drive sign-ups for World’s Biggest Coffee Morning
Howard Lake | 10 September 2019 | News
Macmillan Cancer Support is using artificial intelligence to enhance its supporter recruitment for this year’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning fundraising event.
Working with technology platform Automated Creative, the charity is able to run an unlimited number of variations of its adverts to test and learn which approaches work with different types of people. These adverts are running across channels including Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. They encourage people to sign up to host their own Coffee Morning to fundraise for Macmillan via the charity’s website.
This is the second year in a row that Macmillan has worked with Automated Creative, which was founded in 2018 by Tom Ollerton, former innovation director at social media agency We Are Social. The agency’s commercial clients include GSK, BOSE and Unilever.
Continual optimisation
Having audited Macmillan’s brand assets and content the platform’s Creator tool converts them to digital advertising formats and optimises them continually at scale, based on user feedback and results. In this way it automatically determines the visuals and copy that have the greatest impact on the target audience.
The recruitment campaign is designed to reduce the charity’s cost per acquisition (CPA).
The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan’s biggest fundraising event which sees more than 200,000 people take part in a day “dedicated to cuppas and cakes”. Last year the campaign raised almost £27 million.
Content working harder
Imogen Stead, senior marketing manager, Macmillan Cancer Support commented: “Automated Creative’s proven results in making content work harder to drive traffic and conversions were impossible to ignore.
“I’m confident that working with a team who understands the importance of creative as well as the opportunities that technology presents will help us reach more people and make this year’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning a huge success, enabling us to continue to support people living with cancer.”
Automated Creative’s Tom Ollerton said that their platform was one way of improving the way in which organisations attract people’s attention when face with a huge quantity of content.
He added: “The term ‘artificial intelligence’ may sound futuristic and a bit of a gamble but in fact it’s the exact opposite. Our technology can help ensure that every word and image will have the maximum possible impact and offer the best value for money.”
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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.