Amplifying Crisis’ legacy acquisition, with DRTV

Flourish has been working with the Crisis Legacy Team since 2020, supporting them in their mission to end homelessness through supporter-centric legacy campaigns. Together, we’ve created powerful social acquisition campaigns, direct mail packs and email journeys to inspire legacy donations.

And the results speak for themselves… In the last 5 years, Crisis has seen its legacy income from gifts in Wills grow by 25% per year. The number of supporters leaving gifts has also risen by 20% per year.

Inspired by our shared commitment to making a difference, Flourish has delivered innovative solutions that highlight Crisis’ incredible work and drive response in the complex legacy sector. So, when Crisis tasked us with amplifying their legacy campaigns with a DRTV advert (first broadcast in spring 2024), we were ready for the challenge!

The challenge

Outside of Christmas, when Crisis run their highly successful ‘Crisis at Christmas’ campaign, the charity isn’t front of mind for a lot of people. In fact, our own research revealed that even among volunteers, many thought Crisis’ activity was limited to making sure people experiencing homelessness had somewhere to go over the festive period.

But Crisis’ services are available all year-round for people facing homelessness, and their campaigning work aims to prevent it altogether. So, it was imperative that the legacy campaign not only delivered results, but also helped Crisis to build a ‘year-round’ presence.

The DRTV advert had to be solution-focused, making it clear exactly what Crisis does to support people out of homelessness whilst laddering up to a legacy ask – all in 60 seconds!

Our broad approach was to think of the DRTV as a brand ad with a legacy CTA, enabling us to outline the services Crisis offer year-round. This was supported by a fully integrated print and digital campaign that went live in tandem.

The solution

As the project got underway, Flourish’s strategic teams came together to draft key areas for consideration during planning and development of the creative brief. Utilising our experience of data-driven campaigns, as well as our deep understanding of the Crisis brand, we outlined the following:

• A member’s voice is the most powerful. We have proven success when communicating Crisis’ message through the lens of individuals they’ve supported. This angle engages our target audience and stays close to the key creative pillar of authenticity. During development, we hosted forums with Crisis’ panel of individuals with lived experience of homelessness to ensure the stories we told resonated with their own experiences.
• Leverage the success of our ‘ And for all.’ proposition. Again, this was a creative approach that had worked effectively in previous campaigns by highlighting the impact of a one-time gift for Crisis members facing homelessness and society as a whole. We wanted to empower this message more than ever before, tying in themes of nostalgia, generational change, family and community.
• Develop creative with every channel in mind. When a campaign is spread across TV, social, print and email, there’s a lot to consider. By developing every aspect of the campaign side-by-side, our creative team ensured messaging was complementary rather than clashing or repetitive. If a lead saw every single deliverable, there was always a new aspect of Crisis’ story to discover.
• Deploy creative on a timeline that maximises returns. Social media priming, creative refreshes and nurture journeys ensured that when Crisis’ TV ad hit screens, it had the best possible chance of triggering a conversion. This aspect of the campaign was delivered in collaboration with The Kite Factory.

We knew our legacy campaign had a lot of heavy lifting to do – both in terms of educating audiences on Crisis’ work and standing out in a crowded market – if it was going to successfully attract new legacy enquirers.

So, we opened the brief up to the whole creative department – from the most junior to the most senior members, everyone was freely encouraged to add their ideas. We ended up with a lot of great thinking. Thinking that we then had to shepherd.

We did that by asking ourselves 4 questions about each of the ideas on the table:

1. How is legacy entrenched in the ad?
2. What’s the key brand takeaway?
3. What makes it distinct?
4. Does it feel authentic?

We presented a number of creative routes and ‘Projector’ was chosen, as it enabled a real member’s story to be told in a nostalgic way that we felt would appeal best to the target audience.

Across the campaign, we were able to highlight the inspiring stories of three Crisis members (individuals who had used Crisis’ services): Pete, Algimantas, and Caroline. The TV advert itself focused on Pete’s story, speaking about his childhood dreams, the impacts of housing insecurity on his life, and his hopes for a future where no one has to experience homelessness.

While keeping the approach we take to every project in mind (optimise, elevate, transform), we were able to continue adding value throughout project delivery:

• Budget-conscious creative. Every penny counts when working in the charity sector. With careful set design and production we were able to ‘look back’ on Pete’s entire life without the need for expensive multi-location shoots. This aspect of the campaign was delivered in collaboration with Happy Hour.
• Delivering above and beyond. We even managed to squeeze an additional photoshoot into our production day to collect content for Crisis’ Individual Giving team.

The results

Overall, the campaign delivered impressive results for Crisis’ legacy team, driving volume as well as quality of leads. The TV advert had a marked effect on other channels, particularly social with previous benchmarks exceeded.

• +413% Calls to campaign phone number vs target

On social channels, the campaign achieved:

• 1.2 million Impressions on social channels
• +38% Clicks vs target
• +8% Leads vs target
• -8% CPA vs target

The campaign was a huge success for Crisis’ Legacy Team, as well as for the brand’s overall visibility. So successful, in fact, that Crisis wanted to run the campaign again in the autumn.

This second burst allowed us to refine our approach based on key learnings from the spring campaign, including testing different CTAs. By optimising our strategy, we achieved a notable uplift in results, including 16% more legacy pack requests vs target and a 15% decrease in CPA vs target.

Can we help with your legacy marketing?

Flourish has helped charities of all sizes with their legacy marketing. Whether you have a mature programme that you want to take to the next level, or you want to get your own programme off the ground, we can help.

Our collaborative approach and broad ranging experience, gained over 20 years, means that whatever your ambitions for your legacy programme, we can help you achieve them.

For more information, and a no-obligation consultation, please get in touch with Flourish’s Marketing and Business Development Manager, Aimee Blakemore: [email protected].