2020 Bronze Charity

Agency: GOOD Agency

Client: Sense

Campaign Name: Sense Sign School

Campaign Overview

A new mission for lockdown learning

Sense wanted to test a new engagement strategy, driving audience growth in a way that aligned with the charity’s mission to help people better understand disability.

Strategy

Sense had a traditional ‘acquire and retain’ approach to fundraising. But with costs of acquisition rising and results static, it wanted a new strategy; an approach that could authentically engage a much more aligned audience, converting them to multiple forms of long-term support including donations, campaigning, volunteering and fundraising event participation.

Traditional fundraising can often mean reverting to an uncomfortable “victim narrative” around disability. This wasn’t true to Sense’s ethos or the experience of the people it reaches.

To broaden Sense's reach and grow a pool of people who had untapped potential for the charity, it needed to offer them value and find new ways to connect rather than focus solely on donations.

Creativity

Sense Sign School, a free, simple online British Sign Language (BSL) course led by a mixed-race, deaf teenager from the Midlands, launched in the first weeks of a global pandemic. It was the upbeat inspiration everyone needed.

GOOD Agency worked with media agency Kite Factory to generate insight-led audience profiles based on a belief in equality and a desire to learn new skills. This gave the charity confidence to develop Sense Sign School as a product, launched and delivered digitally.

Course leader Tyrese Dibba was treated like a YouTube star, with the set, music, motion graphics and design created around him. He was the voice of the social ad campaign and email journey, boosting authenticity. It enabled the charity to show he was not a traditional teacher, and tackle every stereotype of the disabled people helped by charities.

Social ads drove people to a microsite featuring Tyrese’s introductory video. They were asked to sign up to a week-long course of daily BSL videos, delivered by email. Each one featured a different topic based around the course leader’s interests, such as food, family and entertainment.

The emails, written in Tyrese’s cheeky voice, also contained more information about the charity. Once people completed all the lessons Tyrese sent them their own digital graduation scroll.

Results

Sense set a target of 6,850 sign-ups. In the first week alone, Sign School enrolled more than 8,000 new students. This has since grown to over 49,000 - beating the target by over 600%. A target of 25% of sign-ups opting in to further communication was beaten, with an actual rate of 61%.

Alongside the marketing objective, the initiative is also helping Sense achieve its mission of breaking down barriers: 90% of survey respondents said they wanted to learn more.

The charity’s awareness gave a 200% increase in monthly followers to Sense’s organic social channels. Sense Sign School become a lockdown good-news story with a reach of more than 11 million, including interviews on BBC, Sky and Channel 5 News.

The Team

GOOD Agency - Nilesha Chauvet, Managing Director - Reuben Turner, Creative Partner - Felix Butler, Account Director - Binta Jallow, Account Manager - Toks Adeola, Multimedia Designer - Anna Hendy, Art Director - Lizzie Russell, Copywriter - Jason Mathias, Copywriter - Helena Farrell, Planner

Sense - Damian Field, Head of Communications - Karen Griffiths, Head of Brand and Content - Chris Jarrett, Director of Engagement - Amanda Santer, Deputy Director of Engagement - Adam O'Riley, Digital Manager - Shaanvir Rehal, Stories Advisor - Tyrese Dibba, Talent & Sense services user

Contributors

The Kite Factory