Subject: Innovative campaigns

I recently worked with a youth homeless charity, and created a brochure aimed at students from secondary school. The aim was to get more local support, especially from mufti days, where traditionally the money raised went to support National Charities. The photography on the front cover showed a teenager sleeping on a bench covered in newspapers and the caption read: "how do you sleep at night?". The charity thought it was too hard hitting. I felt it would make the target group pay attention to the cause and raise awareness about homelessness in the borough. When do you think a campaign has gone too far?

You've probably seen the current TV campaign from Action for Children - it's taken some high profile advertising slots and has been talked about quite a bit in the charity press and other media. Quite impressive for the first time the charity has advertised on TV!

The ‘As long as it takes’ campaign combines an innovative animation style with the real stories of young people who’ve been helped by the charity - told in their own voices. The first ad is about Nicola, who started caring for her mum at the age of eight. The TV campaign is carried through to the Action for Children website where you can learn more about Nicola’s experiences.

What do others think of the advert? Is a big budget campaign like this money well spent?

I think this is a very good campaign, beautifully designed. One niggle though - I wanted to find out more and couldn't remember who had done the campaign. I searched for 'nicola' and found completely unrelated results.

Its a shame to spend all that money and then not help people find the source. Registering 'nicola' as a keyword for a couple of months on google might have done the trick.

Action for Children is the new name for NCH.

I have been really impressed with the current campaign by VSO - that I've seen running as a poster campaign on the underground; in trains and along escalators -  in part because many of the messages seem like clever, opportunistic responses to the recession.

The campaign focuses on the statement, 'I'd love to change the world but...', and each ad provides a variety of objections or excuses to getting volunteering with VSO that people might give to others or themselves, including:

'I'm too old'

'What could I possibly do?'

'How will I pay the rent?'

'I just don't have the time'

Throughout the campaign, the answers to these questions or objections are provided, removing the barriers to getting involved.

The campaign also illustrates that VSO is financially viable and could actually be a great way for anyone out of work during the recession to be gainfully employed, doing something that will add to their professional and life experience - maybe even helping them develop new skills - that will also make the world a better place.  This is summed up in the closing line, 'It pays to change the world'.

Another clever thing about this campaign is the way it gets all of these ideas across in such a minimal form, with very little copy, by relying on the audience to do the thinking in between.

An example of how the posters look in situ can be seen here, and there is more information on the home page of the VSO website.

Thanks Rachel. I hadn't seen these - they look great. Would be interesting to find out what impact it has had on enquiries to VSO.