Results of Barnardo’s TV campaign

Even though I like it, it doesn’t mean everyone else does (that’s the wonderful thing about advertising – it needs to be targeted to work well).  The ASA has announced that it generated 840 complaints. That made it the most complained about ad in 2008, which was the ASA’s busiest year since it was set up in 1962.  I’m glad they were not upheld.

I’m not much of a fan of the charity brand advertising that has been seen on our TV screens over the last few years. I think many of the campaigns are ill-conceived and have probably ended up confusing or even damaging the brands they are designed to build. This one is different.

Barnardos have recently published some figures showing the impact of the campaign.

The ad has increased awareness of what Barnardo’s actually does by 33% and, more importantly, 46% of people who have seen it say they are now more likely to support the charity.

That’s a pretty dramatic uplift. I’ve seen TV campaigns struggle to shift figures by more than a few percentage points.

Even so, the ad has has been criticised for failing to demonstrate what Barnardo’s is actually doing. That’s certainly agreed with by one or two of the people who were interviewed on a voxpop about their thoughts on the campaign.

But I think people can fill that gap themselves. To me, it simply requires a stronger call to action; a means to empower the donor to make a difference to the girl’s life.

Couple that with a good welcome and engagement programme and you have a very strong recruitment vehicle.

It may even have had an impact on some of the appeals that Bluefrog has produced for Barnardo’s. I’d like to think that the results we have achieved for recent recruitment and warm appeals are down to our great strategy and creative work, but perhaps we’ve had a little help from an unexpected source!

In case you haven’t seen it…