WaterAid beats 15-year DM record with new campaign

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 7 Dec 2009

A WaterAid insert threatening to keep asking until every UK household gives £2 a month has beaten the charity’s 15-year long control campaign by 61 per cent on response rates.

The new insert campaign, called ‘Be the change’, also beat the control in terms of 12-month income by 45 per cent.

The charity has been using the same creative in water bill inserts for 15 years, but a test of a new insert by agency Whitewater has broken the decade-and-a-half long record. The new insert emphasised how difficult WaterAid finds it to get people giving.

WaterAid head of supporter development Angharad Mackenzie said that the charity had been desperate to beat their control advertisement, but that it was a difficult task.

Nick Couldry, Whitewater creative director, said that the charity was brave enough to run with an aggressive campaign. “The headline ‘Fifty two million pounds a month – We’re going to keep asking until every household does it’ does not hold back. It leads prospective donors into copy which acknowledges the difficulty of persuading every UK household to donate £2 a month, but does not apologise for it. This is a charity that isn’t afraid to think big,” he said.

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Directory: WaterAid | Whitewater
Who's Who: Nick Couldry

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