CRUK - beating cancer sooner...

Love this CRUK Race for Life ad. Made by Mother. Seen first on Osocio.

Wear your support like a badge...

I like this from Atomic for Cancer Research UK.

It's not going to raise millions of pounds, but I like it.

Simple, engaging and you literally get to wear your support like a badge.

What Cancer Research UK achieved last year...

I love Cancer Research UK. And I don't mind saying it.

Yes!! Another #nomakeupselfie blog post!

I think it’s safe to publish my #nomakeupselfie post now. I vowed I wouldn’t be that person. But here goes…

Unless you've been under a rock for the last month and a bit you know what it is. But for all you rock dwellers…

Lots of people didn't like it for all sorts of reasons. I’m not going to talk about those things.

From a fundraising point of view I loved it. I loved it because it wasn't created by someone like me.

We (marketing types) spend hours and hours figuring out how to create these moments, how to engage the masses in our causes, how to ‘cough’ make something go viral…

But in this case, no one that worked for a charity started it. Who ever started it probably doesn't profess to understand what donors really want, doesn't have any opinion on supporter engagement or the supporter experience and who ever started it definitely doesn't have a blog, an agency or something to sell. Which is fabulous.

It worked because people reacted to something. Whether it was a reaction to the pointlessness of posting a selfie or something else is irrelevant. It happened because a) it could and b) the tech to make it happen was in the hands of everyone who got involved.

Think about what was actually happening…

Your mobile phone vibrates. It’s a Facebook notification.

You've been tagged and challenged to take part by someone you know.

Your mate has done it so you feel you should do it as well.

You take your selfie on your mobile phone.

You post your selfie to Facebook, from your mobile phone.

You make a text donation from your mobile phone.

Repeat.

I'd argue that it could not have happened without our relationship with our mobile phone.

We love our phones.

We keep them close at all times.

We access Facebook on our phones, a lot.

We like taking pictures on our mobiles, a lot.

We message on our phones, a lot.

And all our phones come with a simple and quick response device.

So if we're moved to give we can give in seconds.

It’s that last bit that’s the hard bit. Moving people to give. Anyone can stamp a shortcode and keyword onto a train ad or into a tweet. The real magic is in creating the reason for people to give. And in this case it wasn't the creative team, the mobile team or the planners that did it. It wasn't any of us. Which is awesome.

We're going to be seeing much more of this type of thing. It won't all be at this scale. But if there is a real reason to give, a reason that real people grab hold of and promote, our role will change. Our key role will be to provide the technology for it happen. And then stand back and make sure that what happens next is just as awesome.

CRUK: Be afraid...

I have a confession to make. It might be an unpopular and unfashionable view. But, I LOVE the new Cancer Research UK brand.



I love the new identity, the logo and the beautiful design. But as a fundraiser what I love most is the shift in tone of voice. I'm lucky enough to be able to work with it, it really really is good. It’s so much more confident and progressive than the previous one. It leaves you in no doubt that CRUK are supremely confident that they will at some point eradicate this disease.

“We are going to beat cancer, just like we've beaten other diseases. Help bring that moment forward.”

When it was first launched I heard some negativity from the great and the good of fundraising.

“It's too expensive. It's not driving response. It needs a call to action.”

I'm not sure I agree. Sure, some charity rebranding exercises leave me scratching my head trying to figure out how on earth the new brand will help the fundraisers, but not this one.

I think CRUK were well overdue a brand refresh. This is an organisation that in 2011/12 raised £350 million in voluntary income. To sustain that level of fundraising you need everyone in the UK to know who you are, what you do and where to find you. You also need a massive range of fundraising products to support that total.

Look at Dryathalon, in it's first year it raised over £3 million pounds, you don't get the opportunity to do that unless your brand is strong. Some other headlines...

1 million regular givers. That's a million. How many do you think CRUK need to recruit every year just to keep the file at that level? Do the math!

Up to 750,000 women participating in Race for Life.

All of these mass engagement fundraising products need a strong brand combined with some brilliant direct response activity to drive their success. The trick is to optimise the brand spend to drive response. I for one, have every faith that the clever people at CRUK will get this right.

So should the rest of the sector be afraid?

You just know this is going to be brilliant don't you!?

Cancer Research UK launched Stand Up To Cancer in the UK today.

Stand Up To Cancer is an established initiative in the US which utilises the entertainment industry to create awareness and build public support for cancer research. CR-UK are joining forces with Channel 4 to bring the format to the UK. This video will whet your appetite. 

Exciting times at CR-UK. New brand, new fundraising format, I'm very, very impressed and really looking forward to seeing the rest of the campaign unfold.

Plain & simple

Cancer Research UK have produced this amazingly simple film to support their campaign for plain cigarette packaging. More on the campaign here.




After watching, it's impossible to do anything else apart from support them.

Found on the Osocio site.