Think of a great campaign
If you’re of a certain age, I’m going to guess you thought of Guinness swimmers, Levis laundrettes, Tango slaps or gorilla drummers. These are often held up as the pinnacles of great advertising.
Now ask your 15 year old child, or borrow one if you’ve misplaced your own, and they’ll look at you with barely concealed hatred and incomprehension.
With the greatest will in the world, they couldn’t give a crap about your carefully crafted vintage adverts blessed with Cannes Lions and D&D pencils for creativity. But ask them what Sabrina Carpenter had for breakfast and they’ll regale you for hours about the benefits of matcha protein shakes.
So what does this tell us about charity campaigns?
In order to attract a older, wealthier, more philanthropical audience you have to be as engaging as the greatest ads in history but if you want to grab a younger demographic who will learn to love your charity for the long haul, you have to create ephemeral fluff that seems to speak to them directly.
But you’ve got one campaign with limited spend and a target to raise money and awareness within the next two weeks with an audience profile that might spread across all demographics. Possibly.
So you know you need to make something so good that it will win all the awards but still be as inconsequential and throwaway as a paper straw.
This is when you’ve got to get creative.
The Rules of PR Creativity: Stand out. Speak up. Get noticed. Make a difference.
Who do you want to talk to? Choose your target audience and stick to it. This is not a time to compromise with a little bit of this and a soupçon of that. Be clear to whom you want to talk to and commit your message to that audience. Don’t try to talk to everyone, they won’t listen.
Be singular in thought and proposition. Say one thing. Say it properly and say it loud. Ensure that people know what you are saying and why you are saying it.
Give people a path for action. What do you want them to do? Be crystal clear about how they should act after seeing your comms.
Amplifying your message
Make it shareable, that’s not just a re-post but ensure that it sticks in their memory so they want to mention it to their peers. Personal recommendations are gold-dust. Make it good enough to go organic. There’s no publicity like free publicity. The more shares, the more coverage the better, but remember you probably have to pay something to get that ball rolling so don’t forget to leave some budget set aside. It won’t get famous by itself.
All of these rules apply equally to any audience you want to attract, and to be frank there is nothing new here, but it’s the commitment to this approach that is vital. So many brands, especially charities and not for profits, start along this path and then choose to cover too many bases along the way and lose clarity, resulting in something more meh than memorable.
Last year I led a campaign for the Prevent Cancer Foundation in the US – too young for this shit – designed to attract an urban, inner city, mainly male audience who were choosing not to screen for prostate cancer. The client committed to a single-minded, outstanding proposition designed for a specific audience across print, social and OTH. It won numerous awards but more importantly tripled screening rates in the cities in which it ran. Some people didn’t like it. Some people who saw it had no connection to it. None of that mattered. It worked on the people it needed to and picked up fame far outside of its scope. Props to the client. They knew they were playing with fire but committed to it.
Remember what PR stands for – Public Relations – go out there and have a deep relationship with your audience, you’ll get results and your audience will engage and that’s what we are all here to do.
