As long as we’ve been a content studio, we’ve aimed to use our creativity and strategic thinking for good. That’s why we support the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) by raising awareness to its appeals, which aim to fund urgent humanitarian assistance whenever disaster strikes around the globe. Today we share our work to help the DEC protect the world’s most vulnerable people from COVID-19 through the generosity of the UK public.
This was the UK’s first coronavirus appeal focused abroad, yet the UK is still in the midst of its own COVID-19 outbreak, so being sensitive in our messaging was crucial for bringing this campaign to life for millions of potential supporters, quickly, without implying that the suffering of those in other countries is more ‘important’ than the suffering of people here at home.
Meanwhile, complying with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, we collaborated with stakeholders and aid agencies virtually and produced all content remotely for our three-phase YouTube advertising campaign:
Awareness, with a launch film targeting a broad demographic of people who are interested in charity work,
Consideration, with spending behind our thematic Imagine film to reach and re-engage with the DEC’s existing audience,
Conversion, combining our best performing films to remind viewers who had interacted with us in earlier phases to take action.
Our films attracted 513K views and 3.6M impressions, helping the DEC to raise £15 million in two weeks to bring life-saving supplies to people in refugee camps and states where healthcare facilities are limited.
To bring this crucial campaign to life, we needed to work against the clock for two weeks to:
Collaborate with all stakeholders and DEC’s creative agencies to ensure that our campaign was dynamic, yet cohesive
Produce video content to raise awareness about the appeal, and educate the UK public about the worsening situation in other countries in order to incentivise them to donate to the cause
Optimise the reach and engagement of our content across all DEC social platforms in order to appeal to the generosity of millions of potential supporters around the UK
Strategy (how we set out to achieve those objectives):
To make this possible, fast, while complying with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, we leveraged our cloud-based work environment with tools such as Google Meet, Slack, and Zoom to effectively collaborate and produce all of our content remotely.
This was the UK’s first coronavirus appeal focused outside of the country, yet the UK is still in the midst of its own COVID-19 outbreak, so we needed to be sensitive in our messaging. It was important not to imply that the suffering of those in other countries was more ‘important’ than the suffering of people here at home. Our approach appealed to our audience’s sense of empathy, while bringing to life stories from the field to show the reality of COVID-19 in other parts of the world. Our content drew comparisons to find a common ground between the UK and other parts of the world by leveraging a popular social trend on TikTok in a relevant way to the appeal, and turning the crisis overseas into one that was relatable at home.
We created platform-specific content for all of the DEC’s social platforms, while also running a YouTube advertising campaign in three phases:
Awareness: We put spend behind our launch film, targeting a broad demographic of people who are interested in or support charity work.
Consideration: We put spend behind our Imagine film to reach and re-engage with the DEC’s existing audience.
Conversion: We combined our best performing films and our thematic Imagine film to address viewers who had interacted with us in earlier phases, acting as a reminder for them to take action on a cause they clearly care about.
To make each phase as effective as possible, we needed to report key metrics in real time. By doing this, we were able to act on some crucial learnings, including:
With 295,000 views, our Imagine film was the campaign’s standout success. To maximise this high engagement rate, we brought it back in phase three.
Our 15 second edit of the launch film outperformed the 30 second edit, so we put it back to work in phase three.
Results (including evidence of effectiveness prior and post campaign. E.g. increase in traffic and awareness. Tell the judges what the actual figures were (not just percentages) to give them a better understanding of the campaign’s success):
Within the two-week period of the campaign, our YouTube videos reached 513K views and 3.6M impressions. Together with the DEC, we helped to raise more than £15 million in donations from the UK public, which are helping to bring life-saving supplies to people in the world’s most vulnerable places, including refugee camps, internal displacement camps, and fragile states where healthcare facilities are limited.
“This was an appeal unlike any we’ve done before, with the same disaster affecting us here in the UK as the countries where our member charities work, raising funds for multiple countries, and of course everyone working remotely. Despite the challenges, the appeal ran smoothly. distillery quickly became an extension of the DEC team as always, and produced some brilliant and moving content, that got across the sometimes complex messaging, with flair and sensitivity. Remote working was surprisingly easy using Slack, Zoom, and Google Meet – occasionally all at the same time!”
Barney Guiton, Content Manager at the DEC.
URLs we’d like the judges to look at as part of our entry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFl8kLscjgE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Xddlh2-Ao
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1008983526203826
https://twitter.com/AnnieLennox/status/1282993688839442432?s=20
