2021 Bronze Best Use of Social Media

Agency: RAPP

Client: Virgin Media

Campaign Name: Twitter Street

Campaign Overview

Big Issue vendors were losing £100,000 in donations each week. Their biggest sales period - the run-up to Christmas - was obliterated by lockdown.

At a time when the public couldn't get to the high street, how could Virgin Media bring the high street to them?

Strategy

The campaign needed a powerful idea that would put the vendors back in the spotlight and back on the nation's radar as a collective in real need.

By giving prospects and customers an opportunity to reconnect with their local community at Christmas, Virgin Media sought to bridge the emotional gap between vendor and donor, inspiring brand love and positivity for the brand along the way.

With fewer opportunities to get out of the house, internet usage was soaring. In June, UK adults were spending more than 25% of their waking day online - the highest on record.

Maximising The Big Issue's online presence would be key to raising awareness of the cause, and inspire donations.

As the face-to-face connections that vendors rely on were no longer possible due to the global pandemic, the brand recreated those moments of humanity in a place it knew people were managing to connect with one another: social media.

Creativity

Studies of donor behaviour show that people are willing to give to individuals with names and faces than to an anonymous and nebulous group.

The campaign gave the vendors a platform to reconnect with potential donors and explain how The Big Issue Foundation was changing their lives for the better.

350,000 followers were the power to connect vendors with a huge new audience. RAPP knew Twitter would be the best social platform to get people talking about societal issues. Virgin Media chose to take a back seat and let big issue vendors do the talking.

Eight days before Christmas, the official Virgin Media Twitter account was handed over to The Big Issue to create Twitter Street. It gave vendors the chance to make eye contact again, get up close and tell their personal stories and take them back into people’s lives.

A special focus was placed on giving people the opportunity to find their local vendor and subscribe directly to them.

The promotion ran through a Twitter Spotlight to push the feed to as many people as possible, giving everyone outside the community a chance to join in.

Results

A third of customers walked down Twitter Street.

They started buying The Big Issue online and switched to a more profitable subscription model. Over 25m impressions were achieved in 24 hours, driving two months’ traffic to site in one day.

Vendor donations increased by 79%.

Through the use of the 'Find your local vendor' functionality the campaign successfully reconnected customers with their local Big Issue sellers and generated a 320% increase in the number of direct magazine subscriptions sold.

The Team

RAPP - Al Mackie, Chief Creative Officer - Jason Cascarina, Deputy Executive Creative Director - Matt Mitchell, Senior Copywriter - Matt Seccombe, Senior Art Director - Jess DiMaio, Strategist - Matt Gardner-Lewis, Senior Account Director - Sam Milburn, Copywriter - Kinga Wawrzyniak, Art Director - Chloe McMahon, Associate Strategy Director - Caroline Parkes, Chief Experience Officer - Julian Martines-Milla, Designer - Tom Coombe, Motion

Contributors

MGOMD