Is this modern fundraising?

The Brooke’ ‘Taru’s Heavy Load’ / Whitewater / UK

These five video’s are the nominees for the international Gold Star Award for Excellence in Fundraising DRTV (Direct Response Television). The winner will be announced during the International Fundraising Congress (IFC) in the Netherlands which will be held from 14 to 17 October. The Gold Star Award, sponsored by creative agency WWAV Rapp Collins, is the world’s only international competition for charity and NGO DRTV adverts.
I was disappointed when I saw these video’s.

No these nominees aren’t crap but very old school. I’m sure there are better, less traditional campaigns. All five nominees have the same creative style, filmed as a small documentary, calm music and a thoughtful voiceover. The panel from the Gold Star Award only chose from submitted work, maybe that is the problem. I hope next year more adverts will be submitted in different styles.

I spitted in my archive to find better examples. Examples with humor or in a style which brings a problem nearby to the viewer:
- British Royal National Lifeboat Institution
- Unicef Sweden
- WWF Australia

Canadian Blood Services’ ‘Because’ / Rapp Collins (DDB Canada) / Canada

NSPCC’s ‘Childline’ / WWAV / UK

UNICEF Mexico’s ‘Lucia’ / Arena Media Communications / Mexico

Wateraid’s Watch This / Watson Phillips Norman / UK

Comments

BROOKE - Taking care of those who take care of others, love the idea.

Hi Joen

There’s a commercial reality at work here. These ads have performed well—they are rigorously measured in terms of response. By contrast, the RNLI ad above was an award-winner and creatively different, but poor in terms of response.

The job of fundraising is to raise funds. Until we find something different (and we’re all trying), ‘old school’ seems to be what works.

R