Using New Initiatives to Launch the RSPCA’s ‘Sponsor a Safe Little Place’

As we all know the RSPCA works really hard at preventing animal cruelty, encouraging animal welfare and rescues thousands of abused and neglected animals every year. It is this message that has been conveyed in their recent advertising campaigns.

Last week the RSPCA launched a new campaign, which is focusing on neglected cats and dogs. The campaign is called “Sponsor a safe little place”, to sponsor a kennel or a cat pod. The money raised through this campaign will go towards veterinary care, food, shelter, warm blankets and the love and attention they so desperately need.
For this campaign we planned the use of traditional media, DRTV, Direct Mail, Door Drop, Radio and Online along with some ‘new’ media activity, to target younger affluent females.

Concentrating within the vicinity of the branch that is the focus of this test, we had a stand within Bluewater shopping centre to kick start the launch of this new product, and to engage with potential donors and sign them up on the spot. This proved to be a really successful exercise: in fact, the number of sponsors who signed up was 37% above our target! Great news, not only did we beat our target but the feedback from the shoppers was that the stand gave a lot of information, and in most instances, people had learnt something they didn’t know about the RSPCA. They also liked the fact that they were speaking to someone face to face, to whom they could ask questions, but who wasn’t ‘pushing’ them to sign up in return.

The other event we organised was a dog walk – “Bark on the Beach” on the Isle of Wight and “ Bark in the Park” in Salisbury to raise awareness of the campaign launch. The dog walks took place last weekend, on the 1st October, the week leading up to the dog walks, each local radio station promoted the walk, with live reads and promotional trails. We picked the presenters for the promotion, who were avid dog lovers and who had dogs themselves. This gave additional support as the presenters were really passionate when they read the live reads, confirming that they themselves care about this cause.

During the actual walks, each station had live feeds back to the radio station, interviewing the participants who had signed up for sponsorship and stating why it was a good cause, in their opinion. This in itself was a great endorsement for the RSPCA, to have actual supporters giving heartfelt reasons why they support the charity and, in some cases, they had rescued a dog from their local RSPCA centre.
So the campaign is in its initial stages, but it’s certainly had a great start, by using these new initiatives, along with the traditional media , and making it personal to the sponsor.

If you would like to sponsor a kennel or cat pod please go to www.rspca.org.uk/safe

Vicky Nunn
TV Group Head