consulting/agencies

Last week I flew into London after a weekend trip to Rome and embarked on the usual mundane journey through check-in, departures, passport control and yes..my favourite bit at the end… the long and tiresome wait at the carousel.

Whilst trying to spot my luggage amongst the mysterious looking cling-filmed wrapped suitcases and bubble-wrapped pushchairs, it occurred to me that industry chiefs from the world of advertising are perhaps missing a trick.

I waited approximately 17 mins for my luggage. 10 of those minutes were spent looking at an empty carousel, circulating at a monotonous speed, with everyone wondering if our luggage had even made it into the country, let alone to Baggage reclaim 5. I stood there wondering whether I had time to nip and get a paper to relieve my boredom or whether to tirelessly wait and watch….

I think advertisers have missed a great opportunity here. Similarly to adverts running up the escalators of the London Underground network (positioned in an attempt to inform, influence or inspire the population whilst they embark on their travels), it dawned on me that not many advertisers have cottoned on to a different form of media space, namely the usually dull area of the Carousel.

Some people would argue that these days advertising seems to encroach on all areas of people’s lives. As you can already tell, I’m not one of them. I think (if managed in the correct way), the carousel would be a great platform for advertising. It certainly would brighten up my day to see inspiring, interesting and useful ads whilst I wait for the appearance of my flight’s luggage. Only problem is though, I may end up missing my bright pink trolley spinning round if I’m engrossed in the long copy of the next big campaign…

I’d be interested to know what you think about advertising at airport carousels? Perhaps it’s being done already and I’ve totally missed it. Would be interested to hear of any examples if that’s the case?

Sarah Washington

Around the office, for the last couple of months there have been cries of 'he must be mad'!

I'm hoping this is in reference to my 40 mile round trip daily commute to Shepherdess Walk from leafy Surrey where I live... by bike!

Ok to be honest, it was a little daunting to start with. The first monday I rode in it took 15 mins longer than my weekend test ride making it an hour and 55min (and nearer a scary sounding 2hrs than the ok'ish 1hr 30mins!). But I soon had my times down, my worries eased and I started to really enjoy the scenic views that greeted me on my arrival to Westminster.

Having been a past rider in the London to Brighton and Trail Break MTB rides I thought I could put this newly rediscovered fitness back to good use, so I thought I'd take part in the NSPCC's 65k Big Bike Ride, in West Sussex on the 20th July.

I'm trying to raise the relatively small sum of £250, which could go so far in their campaign to end cruelty to children.

Go on, sponsor me and i'll let you know how I did and how long it took!

Nick Vinson

After that initial presentation of concepts, when the client chooses the idea they love, a little part of us dies. It's always distressing to see two out of three of your baby ideas go to the creative graveyard, before they've had a chance to develop and grow. Sometimes, we're lucky enough to hear a client say, 'we really loved them all, so let's not lose them. We can use them for x, y and z briefs'.

But mostly, our fledglings are never seen again.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a place where those young ideas could be remembered, celebrated even? There is, of course, www.bestrejectedadvertising.com, but it's really only for the shocking and outrageous. We'd like one of our own please, as a special tribute to all those beautiful but abandoned ideas.

Francesca Boardman and Steve Tse

We would like to announce that Elly Moore has joined us as a Senior Account Manager.

Elly will be working with us on the RNLI, Christie's and Fauna & Flora International.

She's been at Whitewater before, for a whole year in 2005/06, as a freelance SAM where she endeared herself to us all with her positive attitude, infectious laugh and by being an all round good egg!
Elly has loads of experience, gained from years of working on such diverse accounts as Bryant Homes, Virgin Media and Lloyds TSB.

But finally the temptation to work on charities again proved too much.

Welcome back Elly, from all of us at Whitewater!

I was recently pointed in the direction of an interesting post on author Neil Gaiman's blog by our Head of Planning, Mark. It's about a blind man and a train full of people, and if you read the post it's obvious to see why Neil got wound up. It makes me ask: what have we turned in to? Where have all the good people gone?

For me, it also illustrates how on a larger scale, our neglectful attitude could be playing a big part in the way people interact with charities in the UK. What do you think?

Richard Halliday

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. All those new gadgets that make life easier, keep us in touch and are generally for the good of the whole. What bugs me is where new technology actually makes things harder or more difficult or costly for people.

Take, for example, all the changes at Royal Mail. A couple of years ago they introduced new machines that could sort the mail, instead of using people. “Great!” You might think, “that’ll make life so much easier and speed up the service”. But then came the catch. No longer could you send mail in larger C4 sized envelopes without incurring higher postal fees.

For many charities, this involved re-designing newsletters and mailings, in order that they could either be folded in half or reduced to A5 size paper to fit the smaller acceptable size. Obviously, there was a cost involved for many charities, but overall they coped.

So, it’s back to normal, or so you’d think. It’s now emerged that these super-whizzo sorting machines are incapable of determining when a FREEPOST envelope has had a stamp stuck on it! As a result, not only are the charities having to pay the FREEPOST fee, the Royal Mail are also coining in the stamp fee from the donor who thought they were saving the charity money! So, double income for Royal Mail and an unecessary charge for the charities using FREEPOST.

The Royal Mail have said they will reimburse charities for the number of double-charged stamped FREEPOST envelopes they receive, although one RM office has told a hospice in Derbyshire it will only reimburse them the once. The point is, it costs time and money for charities to monitor all their FREEPOST mail and chase it up with Royal Mail. They won’t get reimbursed for this, only the postage cost per envelope.

It has led to some charities asking donors to cross out the word FREEPOST on the envelope, when using a stamp, in an effort to stop the double-charging.

I find it incredulous that when we have so much cutting edge technology at our fingertips, Royal Mail cannot get a machine designed that can properly scan envelopes for such obvious things as stamps, printed words (when it already reads hand-written postcodes) or barcodes. The sooner new independent mail delivery services begin to offer decent services to all, the better!

One charity support organisation, Company Solutions, has already called on charities to boycott the use of FREEPOST until Royal Mail get their act together. To sign up to their campaign, click here.

It really is a one way game with Royal Mail. They seem to want all the benefits, even if it results in others experiencing extra costs, just so their systems work and they cut their costs. The days of friendly Postman Pat who brought a human face to the service really do seem to be over.

Whitewater has beaten ten other agencies to be appointed WaterAid’s new direct marketing agency.

Following a lengthy review process, which began in January, Whitewater will be working with media agency MC&C to help WaterAid meet ambitious plans for growth over the next seven years.

Angharad McKenzie, Individual Supporter Fundraising Manager at WaterAid said, “The time was right to evaluate the best way forward for sustained future growth. We concluded that investing our time and budgets in developing a real partnership with a core team would enable us to be more effective and productive in our work.

“We also wanted to establish an agency-client relationship where everyone on the team would be truly committed to our vision and to delivering the very best strategies and campaigns to help us meet it.”

“We believe we can establish a high performing team made up of individuals across WaterAid, Whitewater and MC&C. We see great value in the bringing together of the best people to do the job and over the coming weeks and months we’ll be investing lots of time and energy in developing this partnership.”

Whitewater Chairman, Steve Andrews, said “WaterAid are hugely ambitious so it's a real privilege to have been chosen to work with them. Exciting too as they're lovely people with a great cause."

WaterAid saw agencies of all sizes and varying degrees of charity experience before choosing Whitewater, who demonstrated their ability to come up with inspirational creative; innovative, yet practical strategies and an unrivalled passion.

I was at the cinema the other night (the new Indiana Jones) and I’m one of those people who actually likes the ads they show before the trailers. To me, it’s all part of the cinema going experience along with the retro Pearl and Dean music. Generally the ads have high production values and look brilliant on the big screen. My ultimate favourite being the Guinness surfing ad, which just looked amazing projected onto a screen 30 x 70 foot. You could see detail you never would on the telly.

However I was sorely disappointed by the quality of the ads recently. None of them made any sense. I wasn’t alone in my estimation, we were a group of four media savvy people. Two journalists, one TV editor and me and unprompted, everyone agreed that the BBC Radio 1 ad was stupid, annoying and too long. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the one with the DJs standing in a black room talking about the kind of music they like. This was followed by the new Cadbury ad with The Queen soundtrack, shot at great expense on an airport runway. Both of these ads have high production values and cost a lot but in my opinion, are just pointless.

Then, there was a stupid ad for Lynx and one for Impulse about a commitment-phobe bloke who was willing to commit to a second weekend and how “these are hard times for Romance.”

For me, the problem with all of these ads was that they didn't truly say anything about their brand. They were all trying too hard to be clever and off the wall.

Admittedly I do remember them but mainly because I was so annoyed by them. I got to wondering if maybe ads aren’t as good as they used to be. Remember the KitKat one with the pandas, the Oxo ones? The old style PG Tips? These are all ads which have standout but say something about the product.

So, do you agree? Have ads got sillier?

Niamh Neville

The Head v. Heart discussion broke out again recently at Whitewater: do you focus an appeal on the rationality of staggering numbers and mass need, or focus on the emotions inherent in helping one person?

In the book Made to Stick, Why some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip and Dan Heath share an interesting experiment at Carnegie Mellon University that explored the Head v. Heart question.

The following is a mashup of ideas from a research project, a book, and 2 web sites.

In Volunteer Power News - Number 58, The Power of Emotions, Thomas W. McKee summarizes the experiment:

The researchers offered five dollars to participants who had just completed a survey (the survey was insignificant). Upon completion of the survey each participant received along with their five dollars an envelope with a request for a charity-request letter giving them an opportunity to donate some of their five dollars to Save the Children. The researchers tested two versions of the request letter. As you read these, ask, "Which one would you respond to?" and then ask, "Which one did the people in the test respond to?"

Version One:
• Food shortages in Malawi are affecting more than 3 million children.
• In Zambia, severe rainfall deficits have resulted in a 42 percent drop in maize production from 2000.
• As a result, an estimated 3 million Zambians face hunger.
• Four million Angolans-one third of the population-have been forced to flee their homes.
• More than 11 million people in Ethiopia need immediate food assistance.

Version Two:
• Any money you donate will go to Rokia, a seven-year-old girl from Mali, Africa.
• Rokia is desperately poor and faces the threat of severe hunger or even starvation.
• Her life will be changed for the better as a result of your financial gift.
• With your support, and the support of other caring sponsors, Save the Children will work with Rokia's family and other members of the community to help feed and educate her and provide basic medical care and hygiene education.

The researchers gave the participants the two different letters, then left them alone to make a decision how much money, if any, to put back into the envelope. On average those who read the statistics contributed $1.14. But those who read the story of Rokia, gave $2.38-more than twice as much.

Katya writes:
Now it gets really interesting:  the researchers decided to give a third group of people BOTH sets of information.  People who got both letters gave $1.43.

The lesson?

From Chip and Dan:
Statistics shift people into a more analytical frame of mind. When people think analytically, they are less likely to think emotionally. 

Or as Thomas puts it:
Just because people believe there is a problem does not mean that people care enough to act.

Katya continues:
Researchers proved this argument by asking people analytical questions like math problems before getting the Rokia letter, while other people were asked to free-associate after hearing the word, “baby.” The people who did math before getting the letter gave $1.26 while the people who thought about babies gave $2.34.

Chip and Dan Heath say:
"It's not about pushing people's emotional buttons, like some kind of movie tearjerker. Rather, the goal of making messages emotional' is to make people care. Feelings inspire people to act." The message must move from the heart to the head.

I love this graph, from later in the series of experiments. Feelings correlate directly with amounts donated. And the detrimental impact of numbers begins at 2!

For further reading, I recommend "If I look at the mass I will never act" - Psychic numbing and genocide, by Paul Slovic. A PDF is also available.

If you want to know more about the Rokia study, try this Google search for "Rokia, a 7 year-old girl from Mali"

Brad Bell

A great night was had by all at the Institute of Direct Marketing’s Business Performance Awards annual awards bash at the Kensington Garden Hotel.

The Fundraising team from the RSPCA, as well as Whitewater and Mike Colling & Co, were all there to see Home for Life Marketing Manager Sharon Gearing receive the commendation for the prestigious Diamond award. After all her hard work with this campaign she truly deserved, and rightfully enjoyed, her moment in the limelight.

It was really great too that a legacy product such as Home for Life was recognised by the industry as one of the UK’s best marketing campaigns. Doubly so since the legacy sector is so often neglected by Awards ceremonies.

Considering that the other Diamond award winners were Thomson, Virgin Media and BT and that Home for Life was judged higher than campaigns by other Diamond finalists Abbey, Haven Holidays and IBM, truly puts our commendation in context. We were especially pleased with the Judges' comment 
that Home for Life was "An interesting, inspirational way of looking at an old problem”.

Home for Life is a product developed in conjunction with Whitewater and MC&C that ensures that the RSPCA will care for a bereaved pet when its owner puts a clause in their Will. Since it was launched in 2006 over 700 people have registered their animals for Home for Life and over 500 legacies pledges have been generated for the RSPCA, many by people not actually needing to register a pet.

Jonathan Jacques

A great night was had by all at the Institute of Direct Marketing’s Business Performance Awards annual awards bash awards bash at the Kensington Garden Hotel.

The Fundraising team from the RSPCA, as well as Whitewater and Mike Colling & Co, were all there to see Home for Life Marketing Manager Sharon Gearing receive the commendation for the prestigious Diamond award. After all her hard work with this campaign she truly deserved, and rightfully enjoyed, her moment in the limelight.

It was really great too that a legacy product such as Home for Life was recognised by the industry as one of the UK’s best marketing campaigns. Doubly so since the legacy sector is so often neglected by Awards ceremonies.

Considering that the other Diamond award winners were Thomson, Virgin Media and BT and that Home for Life was judged higher than campaigns by other Diamond finalists Abbey, Haven Holidays and IBM, truly puts our commendation in context. We were especially pleased with the Judges' comment 
that Home for Life was "An interesting, inspirational way of looking at an old problem”.

Home for Life is a product developed in conjunction with Whitewater and MC&C that ensures that the RSPCA will care for a bereaved pet when its owner puts a clause in their Will. Since it was launched in 2006 over 700 people have registered their animals for Home for Life and over 500 legacies pledges have been generated for the RSPCA, many by people not actually needing to register a pet.

Jonathan Jacques

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a very slight obsession with Star Wars. I recently bought a particular action figure that has an interesting and touching story behind it. This exclusive figure was created in memory of Katie Johnson, a little girl who died from brain cancer in August 2005, at the age of seven.

It was inspired by Katie's sister Allie, who thought it would be great if Katie had her own R2 droid to watch over her while she had her cancer treatment. This was made into a reality by the R2 Builders Club who built a full-size, one-off droid for her, and named it R2-KT, after Katie.

A Star Wars costuming fan club called The 501st Legion, which Katie's father Albin is the founder, approached toy makers Hasbro with the idea of producing a special R2-KT commemorative figure in support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who had previously granted Katie's wish to visit Disney World. They thought it was a great idea, and so in conjunction with this figure, Hasbro and Lucasfilm donated $100,000 in Katie's memory to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

What a great story! For more on this have a look at www.rtkt.com

Steve Tse

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a very slight obsession with Star Wars. I recently bought a particular action figure that has an interesting and touching story behind it. This exclusive figure was created in memory of Katie Johnson, a little girl who died from brain cancer in August 2005, at the age of seven.

It was inspired by Katie's sister Allie, who thought it would be great if Katie had her own R2 droid to watch over her while she had her cancer treatment. This was made into a reality by the R2 Builders Club who built a full-size, one-off droid for her, and named it R2-KT, after Katie.

A Star Wars costuming fan club called The 501st Legion, which Katie's father Albin is the founder, approached toy makers Hasbro with the idea of producing a special R2-KT commemorative figure in support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who had previously granted Katie's wish to visit Disney World. They thought it was a great idea, and so in conjunction with this figure, Hasbro and Lucasfilm donated $100,000 in Katie's memory to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

What a great story! For more on this have a look at www.rebelscum.com

Steve Tse

I recently saw an article in Brand Republic that may raise some interesting debate.

The article discussed how widgets may replace email as a marketing tool in 5 years time and are going to be for online marketing what SMS was for mobile - a disruptive technology that will change the way we do things.

The case was made around the fact that email is about telling and that showing is a more powerful form of expression. The smarter the widgets, the more we could do with them. If widgets were put on a mobile phone, the story widens and the audience becomes more broad. They won't be just useful to teenagers anymore but will be used by almost everyone.

It would be great to know other people's thoughts regarding this?

Kate Whitehead

What’s your image of a charity shop? Scruffy? Tatty? Musty? Full of old ladies? If this is your image, when did you last visit a charity shop? You might find things have changed generally…

Charity shops provide a very valuable resource to local communities at several levels:

• They raise money for good causes. Whether this is a local hospice or a national charity for the old, homeless or starving, all charity shops raise much needed funds to enable charities to fulfil their work.
• They are very green places. Charity shops are at the forefront of green recycling. They not only recycle clothes, but also household goods, books, CDs, DVDs, computer games, toys. Things that would otherwise have found their way into landfills. Some even sell furniture, which enables homeless people who have been offered a flat or house the chance to furnish it at a price they can afford.
• They provide for people on low or no incomes. Parents can dress their children and themselves with good quality clothes at a fraction of the High Street Stores prices. OK, they’re used and possibly a little dated, but if you shop around, you’d be amazed what you find. I use them to buy shirts. I like the “Oxford” style shirts and have no trouble picking up M&S, Ben Sherman, Polo and other leading brands at a fraction of the “new” price. A good machine wash and no one would have a clue where it came from!
• They offer a social service. Many charity shop managers I know talk about the customers, especially elderly widows, who pop in 2 or 3 times a day, not so much to buy, but for a bit of company and a chat. Because it’s a charity running it, they feel like they can trust the staff and volunteers and they often become friends, rather than customers.
• The times, they are a changing. If you thought charity shops were about old clothes, think again! Oxfam piloted specialist music stores and bookshops. Several charities now have specialist shops. Did you know that Oxfam has launched fashion boutiques? They will provide shoppers with high-quality, desirable clothing and look to turn the traditional concept of a charity shop on its head. The boutiques were launched in response to shoppers’ views that they wanted a more contemporary shopping experience.
• Move over High Street charity shops, the virtual ones have arrived! Many charities now have charity shops on Ebay. This offers them the chance to auction high demand brand names and achieve much higher prices than they’s get in one of their High Street shops. A good example is St. Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds. Check out their Ebay shop at: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/stgemmasshop

So next time you pass a charity shop, don’t look down your nose at it, go inside and make the most of this unique place - you might just come out with a real bargain too!

Our Lasting Tribute (OLT) today announced the appointment of Deborah Benson as New Business Manager.

OLT managing Director Kevin Kibble said: “This is a great appointment for OLT, Deborah joins us as we launch our new web platform to support Tribute Funds. The new development has created fantastic interest and Deborah’s experience in individual giving programmes will be of great assistance to our clients.”

Benson said: “I’m really looking forward to joining the OLT team and working with the wide variety of causes joining the Tribute Fund and in memoriam programmes. The potential for this area of fundraising is enormous and the new online Tribute Fund programme brings this potential within the reach of most sizes of charities.”

Deborah Benson joins from Future Fundraising where she was Client Account Manager.

Our Lasting Tribute (OLT) today announced the appointment of Deborah Benson as New Business Manager.

OLT managing Director Kevin Kibble said: “This is a great appointment for OLT, Deborah joins us as we launch our new web platform to support Tribute Funds. The new development has created fantastic interest and Deborah’s experience in individual giving programmes will be of great assistance to our clients.”

Benson said: “I’m really looking forward to joining the OLT team and working with the wide variety of causes joining the Tribute Fund and in memoriam programmes. The potential for this area of fundraising is enormous and the new online Tribute Fund programme brings this potential within the reach of most sizes of charities.”

Deborah Benson joins from Future Fundraising where she was Client Account Manager.

So the Fundraising Standards Board has just published its first annual report, and a very glossy looking piece of work it is too! But once past the pictures of happy people (presumably donors happy in the knowledge that their money has been raised from them by the best of standards), we get to the heart of the matter – what are the public complaining about?

Interestingly, FRSB member organisations, of which there are about 860, reported a total of 8,434 complaints which sounds a lot, but only 4 of these (or 0.047%) were referred to stage 2 and only 1 to stage 3. Now I understand that some of this data will be incomplete, but I suggest that it just goes to illustrate that when a member of the public contacts a charity they are usually dealt with pretty effectively.

More interesting figures to come out of the FRSB’s data includes a comparison of the types of fundraising in percentage terms of complaints. If we take these figures at face value, then direct mail is more than twice as irritating to the public as face-to-face, as the FRSB commentary states: ‘Despite early sector speculation that the volume of complaints would predominately be about face to face fundraising, the results of the annual return suggest otherwise.’ They do nothing of the sort. If you take into consideration the volume of direct mail fundraising activity in comparison to the volume of face-to-face activity you will find the picture is somewhat different, and I would expect telephone fundraising to generate more complaints by volume than direct mail by the very nature of the direct approach.

One can of course make data look as different as we want it to be. For example, if we were to compare the volume of complaints to charities about direct mail to the volume of pieces sent in a year (according to the DMIS) the complaint level is 0.0000071% of mailing pieces sent. See what I mean?

The FRSB has to work for the sector, or at least in the eyes of the Government nannies, or we may be saddled with direct legislation that we neither want nor need.

We have to be careful about how the data we produce for public consumption is portrayed. Despite attempts to convince us that there are serious issues with public trust and confidence, I for one, remain of the opinion that if we continue to treat donors with respect, respond appropriately and continue to build rapport with our supporters, then fundraising is in pretty good shape.

Kevin Kibble

Our Lasting Tribute is the specialist tribute giving division of Whitewater. We help charities find appropriate and meaningful ways for grieving friends and relatives to remember and honour their loved ones – whether through a memorial collection, a commemorative gift or by setting up a personalised Tribute Fund.

If you would like to find out more about the forgotten hero that is in memory and tribute giving then please get in touch with us by email to sign up for one of our free seminars.

Alternatively, if you have a general enquiry about Our Lasting Tribute, please email deborah@whitewater.biz

Read our latest news.

developing in memoriam fundraising is huge. Our client, Guide Dogs, has seen its income from this source rise from £150,000 to £500,000 per annum in only four years. And it’s driving big legacy pledges too. In 2008, Our Lasting Tribute is offering a free, no obligation audit of your in memoriam giving – and an appraisal of its potential. Our Lasting Tribute is a unique
consultancy specialising in the area of in memoriam and tribute giving. We have many years of experience working with charities of all sizes and causes. To apply for your free audit, email kevin@whitewater.biz for an application form. " />

My weekly copy of Third Sector magazine arrived as usual this week and with it came a fold out flyer from the Media Trust, a charity that claims it: “covers all aspects of media and communications training for charity and voluntary organisations across the UK.” It was a list of their forthcoming training events.

I eagerly scanned it to see what they were putting on for all the charities in the north of the country, but out of 19 courses, only one on Podcasting was being held north of a line from London to Cardiff (via Bristol). Given the number of fundraisers and charities based in the north, that seems a rather poor share, when London has 16 of the 19 courses based there.

As well as the cost of the courses, northern fundraisers would also have to add the cost of travel and considerable time (plus the possibility of overnight accommodation if the course starts in the morning and they want to try and get cheaper travel tickets which are not usually available until after 09:00). It makes it much harder for those of us in the north to take advantage of such training.

This southern bias was confirmed recently, when one of the Yorkshire Institute of Fundraising Committee rang the Media Trust, to ask if they could provide someone to lead a training day on working with the media for us. They were told by the person at the Media Trust who answered the ‘phone that this was not possible, because they only run courses in London!

Now it seems to me that this is not only an insult to the hundreds of fundraisers and the charities that employ them “up North”, but is also a slight on the many excellent media industry people who run newspapers, TV companies and radio stations in the north. Are the Media Trust so London-bound that they don’t recognise or know media people in the north who would probably jump at the opportunity to engage with the voluntary sector?

Come on Media Trust, get your act together. There are people up here chomping at the bit for some decent media training opportunities.