2011 Gold Best use of copy | DMA
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2011 Gold Best use of copy

01 Dec 2011

Client WaterAid

What is wonderful about this work? It's well told and deeply chilling. Laughing British kids sing the "diarrhoea song". An African boy adds a final verse telling us diarrhoea has just killed his sister. DRTV generated an ROI of 0.43 in the first year (target 0.40). We achieved an average gift of £67 per year, beating our £60 target.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? We wanted to attract a new generation of more affluent supporters to WaterAid's cause: urban professionals with children. New donors from this group would have a greater potential lifetime value than WaterAid's traditional audience, but recruiting them was a challenge, because they don't respond well to conventional charity advertising. What they do respond to are TV appeals like Comic Relief, which entertain as well as motivate. We knew that if we wanted this audience to engage with our message, we'd have to earn their attention by doing something fresh and surprising - and that we'd really hit the spot if we could make them laugh. Our starting point was an appalling statistic: that diarrhoea kills a child every 20 seconds in the developing world.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? We knew we'd get noticed if we broke a taboo by joking about poo - and that we'd be treading a fine and dangerous line. So we decided not to joke about it - but to invite some kids to do it for us. Laughing 10-year-olds sing the 'diarrhoea song', doing their unbridled worst as we capture the hilarity on camera. You don't expect to hear kids shouting "bum" in a TV ad, but the scene is innocent and funny too. The mood is shattered abruptly as we cut to a young boy in Africa. He adds his own verse, telling us that diarrhoea has just killed his sister. The boy's sad verse uses exactly the same construct as the funny ones. The contrast between the tune and the rhythm, and the words he sings, is striking. Our ad then shows how easily these deaths can be prevented, by digging safe, clean pit toilets. We ask the viewer to make a donation to help us do just that. We end with a rallying cry to "Dig toilets, not graves".

Results DRTV generated an ROI of 0.43 in the first year, compared with a target ROI of 0.40: a 7.5% increase. We acquired a younger and more affluent audience, so their lifetime value is likely to be far greater than the traditional WaterAid donor. An average gift of £67 per year (versus target of £60) shows that we reached our desired more affluent target audience.

Judge's comment:"This one really surprised everyone. By starting off positive, the twist on a familiar nursery rhyme subverts the whole problem/solution positioning that most charities make. The power of the words is such that this idea could be used in any medium. That's why it struck a chord." - Daren Kay, Tullo Marshall Warren

Team Kate Flather - Copywriter, Guy Patrick - Art Director, Simon Robinson - Creative Director, Richard Madden - Chief Strategy Officer, Clare Clarke - Agency Producer, Jake Richards - Account Director, Jane McGee - Producer, Debbie Impett - Producer, Susannah Hayes - Director

Other contributors Kream - Production, Rushes - Post production, MC&C - Media, Angell Sound (Crawford Blair) - Audio post-production

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