Getting the balance right for through-the-line work on charity accounts
is key, Michele Martin discovers
One of the strongest advertising images from the sweltering summer of
’95 was the disturbing face of a pasty, dark-haired girl under the
headline ‘made in Britain’. The ad, for Barnardos, was proof that not
everyone was having fun in the sun and reminded revellers that ‘Poverty
is a fact of life for one in four children.’
The charity’s advertising, from the integrated ad agency, Maher Bird
Associates, may have been one of the key elements in repositioning
Barnardos as a modern pressure group back in June, but it was certainly
not the only factor. In fact the ‘giving children a chance’ campaign
proved that charities have understood the power of integration for
years, driven by tight budgets and growing public ‘compassion fatigue’.
With a very small media spend at its disposal, Barnardos and MBA used
every trick in the book to get the message across. The ads themselves
were launched with a massive PR campaign promoting the Mori report, The
Facts of Life, which revealed that 90 per cent of adults thought kids
had a harder time now than they had had when they were youngsters.
Having warmed up the media, MBA then worked with the PR agency, Kinross
and Render, to launch the actual ads a few days later, bringing in the
boxer, Chris Eubank, to unveil the work. At the same time, more than 300
Barnardos shops nationwide were decked out in the campaign’s distinctive
green and white livery to reinforce the message, and 750,000 homes were
mailed with fundraising letters.
While a campaign like Barnardos’ proves that charities understand the
need to take messages through the line, getting the balance right is not
always easy. Alan Booth, the Barnardos’ head of publicity, admits that
its advertising before MBA’s arrival was ad hoc and observes that
generally: ‘The organisation of a charity is likely to be less focused
than that of a commercial company and an organisation often promotes an
array of messages as a result. The final decision on advertising is
often taken by someone who doesn’t know a lot about the subject.’
One crucial factor in Barnardos’ success was the fact that both the
agency and client treated the exercise like a commercial brief. Stephen
Maher, managing director of MBA, explains: ‘Barnardos is a bit like
another of our clients, Next, where we do the main work and find ways of
taking it in-store.’
Barnardos and MBA teamed up 18 months ago, when the agency spun off from
Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow and Johnson, taking the account with it
from the shop’s former below-the-line outfit, Matador. The charity had
re-defined its aims nearly two years earlier when Booth first joined,
with the intention of stamping out its image as an organisation devoted
to running children’s homes - an activity it scrapped years ago.
In order to deliver a realistic picture of the charity’s work, MBA’s
joint creative director, Steve Deput, went to observe projects for
himself. The trawl lead to a brainstorming session back at the agency
similar to that for any other client, producing the ‘giving children a
chance’ strapline and generating the decision to emphasise Barnardos’
corporate colours and commission stark, unemotional photography from the
war photographer, Don McCullen.
The central idea has since been applied to all literature and
advertising, either by MBA itself or Barnardos’ in-house communications
and fundraising departments. This year’s campaign focuses specifically
on poverty, a theme that the charity feels it can develop in future
campaigns.
Finding the right proposition may have been central to the campaign’s
effectiveness, but the on-going relationship with MBA has been equally
important, Booth says. ‘We’ve worked very closely on our plans with the
agency, particularly while putting together the Mori survey. This latest
batch of creative work was driven by the survey as findings emerged.’
And without such co-operation, Booth believes the campaign may have
become too sentimental. He concludes: ‘Presenting our kids as homeless
and helpless would just have made their position worse. We hope this
work has made people think about issues they might otherwise have
ignored.’
