Charity Digital 2021
While this blog has become a little quiet lately, I couldn’t resist dusting it off for the 5th end of year look back at a few of my favourite things from across the sector.
Don’t Be That Guy
There have been some great straight-talking videos targeting young men to examine their behaviours and actively call out these behaviours in their friends too. Firstly from That Guy Scotland with a very simply shot piece to camera, and then more recently #IsThisOK? launched by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
Facebook virtual challenges
With the continued exponential rise of Facebook virtual challenges it’s been interesting to see charities work to make their events stand out. Things like Songbird Survival’s cute collectable fundraising rewards to increase average fundraising per page, or expanding the market by testing new types of fundraising challenges like crochet (Refuge), 7 days of kindness (CR UK), or even cold showers (WWF). Innovation is going to continue to be a key aspect of the market as it evolves and matures going into 2022.
Not Model’s Own
This subtle but powerful creative was developed as part of a pro bono campaign with Engine Creative. At first glance the series appears to be any other fashion piece from a glossy magazine, but when you look closer the realities of coercive control are clear. It’s a great example of clever copyrighting, delivered in a subtle way.
There’s an excellent article on the CharityComms website about the campaign from Teresa Parker, Head of Media Relations and Communications at Women’s Aid, which is worth a read.
Whatever It Takes
Taking things right back to the start of 2021, this hugely powerful video from Macmillan really hit me in the feels. Beautifully shot, unflinching from the realities of cancer, but sprinkled with moments of joy. It’s such a rollercoaster to watch and I inevitably end up crying every time. Huge hats off to Macmillan and AMV BDDO who worked with them on it. Also, perfect musical pairing with the excellent Spring 1 by Max Richter.
SEO Super Trumps
Benchmarking is not the most glamorous aspects of digital, but it’s super important to see where you can improve. Digital agency Torchbox collated SEO metrics from publicly available data on 50 charities of all sizes to create this game (you can play online) which is also a super useful resource for the sector.
(Disclaimer: I was gifted a pack of these Super Trumps but this did not influence my choice to include them in this list)
Keep Dads Dancing
This video from Prostate Cancer UK really makes me smile. Tapping into the large number of dads that I’ve seen roped in to their kids lockdown TikTok dances and making this wonderfully feel-good video with an important message.
If you’d like to see more light-hearted charity videos from this year, it’s worth checking out these from Blood Cancer UK (tapping into the James Bond hype) and MS Society.
Beyond a Bed
I do love an experiential crossover, something that can bridge the gap between the digital and the physical. This pop up from Depaul really caught my eye: a bed shop in Croydon that wasn’t selling beds. In fact, the campaign was highlighting how homelessness needs long term solutions which need long term support through regular gifts.
Wrapped in Kindness
Festive charity ecards have been around for a while, but I love this twist on the idea from UNHCR to partner with authors, artists and designers to create downloadable wrapping paper inspired by refugees stories. You can read about the stories that inspired the beautiful designs, and download them to print as wrapping paper or use as a background on your phone or computer… and then while you’re there make a donation to support their work with displaced families in the Middle East and Afghanistan this winter.
First ever uncensored breast check
A big personal highlight of 2021 was partnering with Twitter UK at Breast Cancer Now to get people checking their breasts, and actually being able to show breasts and chests without being censored. As you can imagine rules around nudity on social platforms usually means this is a no-go.
Together with Twitter we took our expertise with clinically-driven live content to show the women and men watching how they can be breast aware. The broadcast has now been viewed almost 260,000 times and coincidentally was our 100th live session as part of our clinical and research series which has been running since 2018 and now totals more than 2.1m views.
Alongside this, Twitter also created a hashflag emoji of the Breast Cancer Now ribbon icon whenever someone uses #TouchLookCheck, our breast awareness campaign.
And that’s us for 2021…
As always this is just a few of the many many pieces of amazing work across the sector. Hopefully 2022 will be less strange but either way I know there’ll be loads more excellent things to celebrate and inspire us this time next year.
