Amnesty international Defiant stance wins recruits

Agency: Different Kettle

CHALLENGE

Inserts have traditionally been a lucrative fundraising channel for many charities: they are cost-effective to produce and once designed, can be reused many times.

But as anyone who has recently read a magazine or newspaper can attest, the inserts market is rapidly becoming crowded, making it hard to stand out from the competition.

Human rights charity Amnesty International has always relied on the channel, distributing around 11 million inserts annually. However, at the start of 2007, response rates were declining and the charity wanted to counter this with a striking and reusable brand insert that could run alongside specific campaign fundraising activity.

STRATEGY

In the past, Amnesty had been viewed as an intellectual charity, and less accessible than others. A recent rebrand set out to give it a more universal appeal, so it was essential that any work reflected this change.

"We wanted to come up with something that was more generic," says Simon Nicholls, Amnesty's direct marketing manager for supporter acquisition. "We wanted our message to be about human rights for everyone and needed something simple, striking and not campaign-specific."

EXECUTION

Making the work stand out from the competition was a major concern for Nicholls and agency Different Kettle. "We know that most inserts are thrown in the bin, so it's hard enough to get people to even read them before asking them to donate," he says.

The resulting campaign played on this perception with a twist on the traditional call to action: the front of the insert featured, in large capital fluorescent letters, the words 'Throw away this flyer'. Above this, in smaller letters, was the caveat: 'A lot of people want you to'.

Inside, it informed the recipient that dictators, torturers and terrorists would like them to stop reading the leaflet and invited the reader to 'defy them'.

"The piece was different enough to stand-out, but also had a nod and a wink to the feelings that a lot of people have about the inserts in their newspapers," said Nicholls. "The copy had an air of defiance that meant you had to read it."

Creative was entirely text-based, and the absence of imagery helped it to stand out.

Activity was carried out in five waves across 2007: in February, March, June/July, October and then for Human Rights Day in December. Titles used included The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent and magazines such as The Week, Time Out, The Big Issue and even Viz.

RESULTS

By the end of November, the insert had been responsible for recruiting 4,119 new supporters, with another 500 expected to join as a result of the December activity. The yearly income generated was £226,441, with new members signing up for an average yearly gift of £53.73. According to Nicholls, the insert allowed Amnesty to re-activate titles that had previously ceased to be responsive. "We had used Viz and other similar titles in the past, but this enabled us to retest and get them working for us again," he says.

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