Enhancing Impact of Charitable Giving Campaigns
Background
The winter holidays present a critical window for charitable giving campaigns, yet the landscape is fierce and competitive. Covenant House, a local youth homeless charity, faced the challenge of maximizing impact for their TV ad amidst limited media budgets. The question was clear: how could they stand out in the sea of holiday-related content and compel donors to contribute?
Opportunity
With donor attention spread thin during the holiday season, Covenant House recognized the opportunity to optimize their TV ad for the greatest resonance and effectiveness. This strategic approach was a critical stepping stone toward securing vital support for their cause.
Approach
Covenant House partnered with Brainsights to evaluate and optimize their TV ads for optimal impact. Here’s how we approached it collaboratively:
Dual Ad Testing: Covenant House aimed to optimize both a 60s and a 30s cutdown for TV
Target Audience Recruitment: The charity shared their archetypal donor profile, which was then identified in Brainsights community and recruited to the study.
Competitive Landscape Analysis: The ads were tested alongside a reel of holiday-themed content and rival charity ads.
Granular neuroscience data analysis: Covenant House’s ads were scrutinized at the second-by-second level, providing a deep understand of consumer engagement, and benchmarked against the competition to highlight moments of strength and softness in each. Combining insights from the 60s and 30s ads, Brainsights identified optimization opportunities to ensure the key messages were delivered across each asset. Often cutdowns can lose the emotional punch of their longer-form spots, and this is what had happened here with the unwitting removal of key moments of emotional impact. Furthemore, the Call to Action was much stronger in the 30s ad, and so was identified as an opportunity to use in the 60s.
Optimization: Covenant House recut each ad. The best elements were woven together, creating potential narratives that resonated at the emotional and unconscious levels.
Results
The results were nothing short of remarkable:
Donor Growth: The optimized TV ads were credited with a 60% surge in monthly donors for the charity, surpassing even the most optimistic projections.
Media extension: The imagery and copy in the video that emerged as the most impactful on the brains of donors was lifted and adapted for other media channels, like Out of Home and Display, with the campaign so effective that it was used for many years following.
Conclusion
The Covenant House case study stands as a testament to the power of strategic refinement in charitable campaigns. By optimizing their TV ads based on granular neurological insights, they achieved unparalleled success in attracting donors during the competitive holiday season. This success wasn't limited to the screen; it extended its influence across multiple channels, reaffirming the potential of evidence-based messaging to create a lasting impact.
