While watching a film last week, during the ad breaks, there were ads/appeals for both the RSPCA and for the PDSA. Maybe it is that i don’t watch much TV and rarely watch that channel, but i could not recall seeing such before. Both the ads made the point that they have more work to do now and less money to do that work, hence the stress and urgency of the appeals.
Led me to wondering if we will see more charity appeals, in ad breaks? I presume this is an expensive way of reaching a target audience, althopugh perhaps one effect of the credit crunch is that the cost of ads goes down as TV companies seek to fill the time? Perhaps – as with landlords allowing charities to rent retail units at a reduced rate – the advertising rate for charities will be lower?
And how are the charities going to sell themselves? Given that all can justifiably say that in a world where all are touched by the economic crisis, however indirectly, the need for aid/charity work is greater than ever, what will be the USP of each? How will, say, the various charities working in Africa differentiate themselves from each other? If many seem interchangeable to me, with my long-time history of donating, then charities really need to look at what they are telling the people to whom they are making appeal. Maybe it’s just me but pictures of starving kiddies followed by beaming kiddies with nuns in the background is just too darn fluffy. I want something more focussed, harder-edged.I want to know why my cash should go to Charity A not Charity B.
As i so often say, at least tell me how efficient you are, how green and how thrifty. Tell me how you monitor the effect of appeals and campaigns, whether TV ads or newspaper inserts, or radio appeals? What are your criteria for judging success? What proportion of paid staff to volunteers do you have? If you use ’chuggers’, what proportion of people who sign up in the street immediately cancel once they get home? Or within a few weeks or months? Tell me why you are worth it!