Content Creation, Direct marketing

The cats that got the Cream

Our double award-winning Direct Mail pack (Best DM and Best Use of Illustration), sent to all existing supporters, featured a booklet illustrated in a graphic novel style. This enabled us to draw attention to the malnutrition crisis in Lake Chad, and the charity’s response to it, in a way that was much more engaging than a standard mail piece.

Our creative team chose the style as it enabled them to circumnavigate some specific challenges in the brief. Firstly, as it was an emergency, the situation was so fresh that photography simply wasn’t available. Secondly, the severity of the subject matter meant that photography would have been hard to stomach, even for MSF’s hardened supporters.

To put it bluntly, the situation in the region is terrible. And complicated. Hundreds of thousands displaced because of war are forced into refugee camps. Woman are at risk of sexual violence. Disease is a constant threat. Food is scarce and malnourishment is common. Children are at particular risk.

The income generated by the appeal was impressive with a 40% increase from the charity’s last emergency appeal, with a significant number of lapsed supporters being re-engaged.

Cut through has always been a vital tool for Marketers, but with supporters and customers being bombarded with messages – consider the schedule – Black Friday / Cyber Monday, then Christmas campaigns, then New Year sales then GDPR – if you want your message to stick between now and May, you’d better make sure it stands out. Big time.

If you’d like some help or advice to re-engage lapsed supporters or customers, or if you’d like to give flagging response rates a bit of a poke, get in touch. We’d be happy to produce some award-winning comms for you.

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