2021 Silver Best Performance Marketing Activity

Agency: The Kite Factory and Don't Panic

Client: WaterAid

Campaign Name: Juxtaposing the Mission to Mars with "The Girl Who Built A Rocket

Campaign Overview

Despite living on the fourth-biggest island in the world, almost half of Madagascans have no clean water.

WaterAid's communication objective was to tell the story of the potential of the community in Madagascar, and the barriers blocking it, in a way that would drive increased consideratio

Strategy

The campaign put water at the heart of the news cycle.

With three Mars missions landing in early 2021, WaterAid identified a cultural moment with universal meaning.

Billions are being spent to find water on Mars but nobody is thirsty there. Here on Earth, a staggering 771 million people still don't have access to clean water.

The Mars missions were juxtaposed with the story of a community in Madagascar, and the difference clean water could make there.

Media was bought to reach an emotionally primed audience for impactful consideration.

The plan combined TV with digital platforms, to maximise the reach of the campaign film, before transitioning the focus to engagement, to underpin the key objective of shifting the consideration metric.

Creativity

The lead piece of content was an animated film, presenting the community with their real-life vibrancy and agency, with a Sir Trevor McDonald voiceover and a specially composed version of David Bowie's 'Life on Mars' grabbing attention.

The creative used the shared dreams of all children to establish a universal platform of understanding, around which was shown the charity’s role in supporting communities to take control.

Media was led by TV and digital to maximise the video asset.

The TV component included an exclusive Channel 4 TV/VOD partnership with peak spots in key programming and a contextual Channel 4 News spot on the evening the NASA mission landed.

Online, the campaign used a blend of tactics to drive both mass engagement and deeper engagement:

• Initially optimised towards reach/video views and engagement, using YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Teads to build frequency among all audiences

• Optimised content fed across multiple placements using various video lengths best suited to each platform. To ensure every available touchpoint was utilised to maximise campaign visibility, the campaign was further supported in Owned and Earned channels across WaterAid.

Results

The initiative put rocket boosters under UK consideration and performance but also enabled WaterAid to fund projects in Madagascar, working with communities to help them create new opportunities to thrive.

The film launch generated 162 pieces of coverage with a reach of 15.6 million and engagement rates on social campaign assets were well above benchmarks.

Against the key campaign objective of driving increased consideration for WaterAid’s work there was +5% uplift in the consideration metric of ‘giving £1 tomorrow if asked’.

There was also positive movement in other key intermediate metrics:

• Quality metric (belief that WaterAid has a positive impact on the cause) increased by 11% in line with the campaign

• Value metric (‘would give all/some of £25’) increased by +10%

Leading short-term results included:

• 18% uplift in cash and regular donations, helping achieve the highest gross response rate in more than a year

• Response rates - phone, SMS or online - were significantly higher than the previous six-month average

The Team

WaterAid - Jonty Gray, Mass Engagement Director - Charley Day-Lennon, Supporter Engagement Team Lead - Nick Miller, Head of Supporter Activation - Wanji Wambari-Kairu, Digital Acquisition Manager - Temina Milovanovic, Digital Marketing and Product Lead - Vicki Laing, Head of Supporter Activation

The Kite Factory - Rik Moore, Head of Insight Planning & Strategy