Category: Charities
Advertiser: UNICEF
Product/Service: ANTI - CHILD MARRIAGE
Agency: RAPP
Chief Creative Officer: Rik Haslam (Rapp)
Design Director: Adrian Whatman (Rapp)
Art Director: Paul Turner (Rapp)
Copywriter: Robbie Rae (Rapp)
Media placement: Newspaper Press - The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian - 30th April 2011
Media placement: Door Drop - 250,000 Households - 6th June 2011
Media placement: Inserts - The Guardian - 4th May 2011
Describe the brief/objective of the direct campaign.
UNICEF is arguably best known for its emergency appeals. But the charity also campaigns proactively on a number of different issues – including forced child marriage. We saw an opportunity to interrupt an atmosphere of excitement and joy to bring attention to an overlooked issue. We needed to remind people that not every wedding is a cause for celebration, without creating a negative perception of UNICEF.
Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective with reference to the projected response rates and desired outcome.
We used a new approach to direct marketing as far as UNICEF is concerned. There was no fundraising ask, the press ad simply asked people to send an SMS if they saw anything wrong with a 12 year-old girl marrying a 42 year-old man. Every person who responded then received a call from UNICEF asking if they would like to convert to a donation. The press insert required response through a form. As this was proactive work for UNICEF the client did not have set targets.
Explain why the creative execution was relevant to the product or service.
By using the familiar wedding vows but subverting them to highlight such a shocking issue, we grabbed the attention of a wedding-mad audience. UNICEF works to ensure the rights of children across the world – and believes that forced child marriage is just wrong. This simple yet powerful creative not only compelled people to think about the issue, but also engaged them in the charity’s outrage.
Describe the results in as much detail as possible with particular reference to the RESPONSE of the target audience including deliverability statistics, response rates, click throughs, sales cost per response, relationships built and overall return on investment.
The campaign led to full-page feature articles in both the Guardian and Grazia, the UK’s bestselling women’s magazine – helping to raise awareness across a wide demographic. The issue was also highlighted in numerous online news sites. The press ad provoked 2,383 people to text ‘I do’ in the week of the royal wedding, which was a significant result – and of those responders 54% converted to give a cash donation. These results show that awareness of the issue of forced child marriage, and UNICEF’s work, were raised by this campaign.