The Red Cross identified people it had helped — who, for example, had experienced home fires or floods, or were reunited with loved ones in the military — and gave them video cameras to film their stories. Twenty-five of the 300 films that were shot ultimately were chosen to be part of the new campaign. Three of the 25 also were selected to run on television as public service spots.
Called “The Red Cross Stories Project,” the effort is the third consecutive year-end fund-raising campaign by the organization. Last year’s campaign, by the New York office of BBDO, part of the Omnicom Group, used a Claymation figure named Fred to encourage giving.
Peggy Dyer, chief marketing officer of the American Red Cross, said the group decided the Claymation concept was inappropriate in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
“It didn’t feel right,” she said. “There was a disconnect between what people were experiencing and feeling in the aftermath of Sandy and the whimsical approach used last year.”
The American Red Cross and BBDO decided to speed up editing of the storytelling videos — which were commissioned this year and were originally intended for release in early 2013 — and run them in place of the Claymation spots.
“We wanted to tell the story of the Red Cross through the people we serve, while at the same time demonstrating the breadth of our mission,” Ms. Dyer said. Linda Honan, senior creative director of the New York office of BBDO, said the concept for the storytelling campaign was inspired by a trip agency executives took to Alabama in March 2011, before they won the Red Cross account, to watch the organization in action after a tornado.
The trip allowed them to see firsthand assistance provided by the Red Cross and the “moving interaction between the people who were helped and the volunteers,” Ms. Honan said. “It led us to believe that only by firsthand accounts could the Red Cross really tell its story, to turn the storytelling over to people whose lives had been touched themselves.”
One of the three 30-second television spots features Angelina Perez, who shows the building where she once lived in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, before a fire destroyed her apartment. “When things like this happen, I think you find a new perspective on life,” she says, adding: “Red Cross put us in a hotel so we were able to stay together. We’re strong, and if we overcame that, or if we can overcome that, we can overcome anything.”
Another spot features Sarah Centrella, a single mother whose house in Portland, Ore., was flooded. “The Red Cross arranged the hotel for us — they gave me that break, that leverage, to be able to get it together and take care of them,” she says, referring to her children. “I feel like we’ve come full circle.”
Printed copy at the end of this spot says, “Help us be there for disasters big and small,” which is followed by a request to “Donate at redcross.org.”
Besides the three television spots, BBDO created a full-page print ad, based on Ms. Perez’s video and a journal she wrote on her experience.
The American Red Cross is spending less than $1 million through the end of this year to run the spots on cable channels like AMC, Fox News, IFC and AE. It is also buying space for the print ad in December issues of Time and The New Yorker. In addition, the organization has asked channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Lifetime to run the spots as free public service advertising through the end of the year.
The spots also are being distributed through the American Red Cross’ Facebook and Twitter accounts. They and the other 22 videos selected to be part of the storytelling project are also available at www.redcross.org/stories.
Nancy Schwartz, a marketing consultant to nonprofit groups, said the Red Cross had “done a great job directing its beneficiaries to tell their stories.” These stories, she added, “get people first through the heart, then through the head, a message that is more likely to be understood and acted on.”
Deborah Small, an associate professor of marketing and psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, expressed similar sentiments. The new campaign, she said, “tugs at our heartstrings. The very best way for an ad to get people to open their wallets is to present them with an identifiable victim. It creates an emotional connection.”
Edward Russell, an associate professor of advertising at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, called the campaign “fairly effective,” but expressed concern that the diversity of Red Cross initiatives in the videos “may end up confusing people.”
Naomi Levine, chairman and executive director of the George H. Heyman Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University, however, praised the campaign’s message.
“In fund-raising, if you can get people to see what you’re actually doing, it makes it much easier to ask for their support,” she said.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/business/to-tell-its-story-red-cross-goes-to-those-it-helped.html?partner=rss&emc=rss