Our Work
Let’s be honest, anniversaries can be a minefield.
They might mean everything to your organisation, but relatively little to your supporters… and even less to the world at large. And what appears to be a fundraising opportunity, can quickly become a navel-gazing exercise and even strike the wrong tone completely if you’re a charity.
So we had plenty to be mindful of with Christian Aid’s 75th anniversary.
Our brief was to create a dynamic overarching campaign across multiple channels – from TV to social to direct mail. Engaging the charity’s wide range of supporters and inspiring them to Give, Act and Pray over the 6 week Lent period. It had to be an appeal in its own right, but also a ‘pre-burner’ to the forthcoming Christian Aid Week and its theme of ‘climate justice’. Always a crucial moment in the organisation’s calendar, but now even more important, given the disruption caused by the coronavirus in 2020.
For us, provenance and authenticity were key.
So we set out to put the supporters right at the heart of the campaign with a powerful campaign proposition: ‘Real people. Real change’. Basically, them! The real people – the authentic, everyday, voices from the frontline of the movement’s work. And the real change – the lasting, history-making difference, made to those in need all over the world.
Celebrating their role and demonstrating what has… and can be… possible when they come together. All the while galvanising internal teams to work together to deliver an integrated campaign that would pave the way for Christian Aid Week.
6 weeks is a long time.
It called for a ‘phased release’ of the campaign to sustain interest over the whole of Lent.
A big attention grabbing brand film, followed by phases of campaigning, fundraising and legacy activity – utilising paid social, direct mail and a shifting landing page hierarchy appropriate to each phase.
Embracing commonalities across the decades
We brought ‘Real people. Real change’ to life with a high-impact, collage-based graphical theme – visually uniting those real people who’ve made that real change over 75 years.
A powerful hero film
To kick things off, we created a powerful online hero film for supporters… promoted via social and proclaiming that ‘this is not our story. It’s your story. The change makers. Who, for over 75 years have stood together as Christian Aid’. Articulating the movement, as much as the charity. Weaving it all together with inspirational imagery and footage from the archives and a specially commissioned, rousing version of ‘We Shall Overcome’ – by the renowned Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir.
A TV ad to take the message much wider
This anniversary was a huge opportunity to engage potential new supporters too. To this end, we created an equally powerful brand ad for TV – urging people to join with us. Our approach was to draw on the universal themes at the heart of the Christian Aid movement. The notion of helping our fellow human beings, simply because it’s the right thing to do. To see beyond the crisis, the conflict, the country and talk about ‘people just like us’. Using this as an open invitation to stand with us, as we fight for climate justice.
We flexed the campaign to the different supporter audiences – teasing out the messages most pertinent to them. Beginning with their core, churchgoing audience, and the fact that Christian Aid had united Christians across the country to make real change happen. This messaging was also filtered through to a keynote spot on BBC television’s Songs of Praise:
For our SV cash audience we took them on a journey through time. Bringing to life key moments in their history and showing how these sat on a continuum – culminating with, possibly, their greatest ever challenge… that fight for climate justice.
For our MV cash audience, we dug deeper to bring to life the rich, tangible detail that we know inspires them – researching and reprinting an issue of The Church Times from the 1970s, to show that ‘Real People. Real Change’ is a common thread that runs through the history of the movement.
With legacy prospects, it was a matter of going ‘widescreen’. Aligning supporters’ own lifetimes of love with that of the movement. Showing how their love could live on through a gift in their Will… extending the work of the charity when the world needs it more than ever.
The results so far look very positive:
Income from individual giving is up 65% against target and the number of digital donors is up by 42%.
The spike and fluency ratings for the TV ad were ‘exceptional’ and the ad is prompting good brand recognition.
The wider campaign results are still being gathered. So come back soon for our latest updates.
And the client was very pleased:
“Christian Aid supporters have been doing amazing things working with partners and communities across the world for 75 years. Why does that matter? Because it reminds us just how much we are capable of doing in the present and the future. Different Kettle understood that from the start and have created a fully integrated campaign that I believe will inspire, motivate and mobilise our amazing community to keep on making history.”
Nick Georgiadis, Director of Fundraising and Supporter Engagement at Christian Aid
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