It’s nearly a month since TreeHouse and TalkTalk launched what was billed as the world’s first online talkathon as part of the pairs long-term corporate-community partnership. Essentially, the company will donate £1 to the autism education charity for every person that signs up to talk about autism via email, on Twitter or on Facebook (up to a maximum of £150,000). It's quite a nifty virtual cause related marketing tie-up and, given how simple it is to generate a donation, you’d think its fundraising target would have been reached by now, wouldn’t you? However, so far, only 3,071 people have come on board generating, let me get my calculator out, erm, £3,071! This, despite the fact that TalkTalk are reputed to have marketed this amongst c4m customers.
Actually, make that figure £3,072 as I signed up just now…it took me less than ten seconds and I didn’t have to reveal any personal info other than an email address. And it didn’t cost me anything – the company is making the donation remember!
So, why does this scheme seem to have run out of steam?
Howard, Rob Dyson…what are your thoughts on this?
http://talkathon.talkaboutautism.org.uk/
http://www.treehouse.org.uk/tell-autism/news/treehouse-and-talktalk-laun...
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Comments
I applaud the ambition of the site but feel the execution, while looking great, is unfocussed. I'm really not sure whether the sites fundamental purpose is to get people joining the Talkathon, thereby helping to raise money - or whether its to offer the opportunity for those with experience of autism to talk about it and share experiences.
I want them to get a £1 from TalkTalk but why doesn't the home page promote that say - as someone with no knowledge of autism but wanting to help why would I sign up to talk when I have nothing of substance to talk about.
My suggestion would be to refocus the site around one purpose and try to concentrate behaviour around that purpose.
I hope those who look around the site learn more about the issues but I feel the money raising has been poorly thought through.
I would imagine there are 2 issues at work,
1. People don't know about the campaign (I certainly didn't)
2. Perhaps those who are aware of it might not feel attracted to the cause on the basis that it doesn't affect them personally?
Jack.
So maybe expectations were too high? After all getting 150,000 people to do something on FB or Twitter that doesn't involve the X-Factor, Cheryl Cole, or Justin Bieber is probably a pretty steep ask.
If you assume all 4,000,000 of Talk's Talk's customers actually saw the 'Talkathon' promotion then that 3,072 people is about a 0.08% response. That certainly lines up with the kind of response stats I've seen to targeted Facebook ad activity I've run - about 0.07% clickthrough...
So the challenge for Treehouse now is to find more ways of reaching people - via FB directly, or by getting existing responders to spread the word among their friends.
But I think it's a salutary reminder that these kind of things need to be really thought through - because action rates for Twitter and Facebook do seem to be low overall.
Adrian Salmon
Footsteps Fund Manager
University of Leeds