NFPtweetup 8: RAFBF 1940 chronicle presentation

RAF Benevolent Fund

A bit of background...
RAF’s leading welfare charity, provide direct support
to 10,000 people each year. Started in 1919.
BUT...
Low brand awareness among key audiences
70% of supporters over 70
Seen as a little ‘stuffy’/traditional
Competing with more exciting brands like Help for Heroes

Battle of Britain 70th anniversary
Opportunities
Biggest aerial battle in British history
Lots of RAF related online communities to tap into
Challenges
Danger of reinforcing image of traditional, veterans charity
Lots of military/RAF related organizations want a slice of the pie. How to differentiate ourselves?

Introducing
1940 Chronicle...N
1940s newspaper site, daily news on Battle of Britain
Five 1940s characters who blog and tweet about their personal experiences of the Battle
Live interaction on Twitter
Updates on Facebook
Long running campaign

The people
@1940George
@1940Jane
@1940Frank
@1940Alex
@1940Mary

The blogs

Characters on Twitter

Live interaction

Chronicle on Facebook

Getting the RAFBF message across
Subtle – runs throughout story, eg.
Mary often talks about burns victims being helped by the RAFBF
Chronicle news stories about RAFBF
Chronicle ran an appeal on behalf of the RAFBF
But always in character to keep it authentic

Calls to action
Very gradual approach, built relationship first
Started with soft asks – RAFBF advert, spotlight links to Heartfelt Thanks campaign site and to donate
Letters to editor for data capture
Then added donate button and ran appeal in character in August
Added ‘say thank you’ data capture mechanism in last couple of weeks
RAFBF Twitter account follows all Chronicle character followers

Online promotion
Identified and approached key influencers
Wrote in character on forums
Facebook advertising
Day of action – Battle of Britain day – 15th September!

Day of action – 15/09/10
Big focussed outreach effort for one day. Contacted people we’d identified as key influencers and asked them to show their support on Battle of Britain Day by taking an action online

Actions
‘Twibbon it’
‘Shout it’
‘Be a hero’
‘Start a trend’
‘Blog it’
‘Play your part’
Leave a message of thanks

Results so far
19,600 repeat visitors to campaign site (43,000 unique visitors)
183% Increase in online donations after adding donate button to Chronicle site
Grown RAFBF twitter following from 25 to 746
Lots of great coverage
Support from Stephen Fry
Increase in brand recognition amongst target audiences
Data capture – expanded email database

Future opportunities
Possibility of resurrecting characters for future campaigns/appeals
Possible teaching resource

Thanks for listening!
Any questions?
Yvonne Struthers
Online Communications Manager
@ystruthers
Yvonne.struthers@rafbf.org.uk

http://www.nfptweetup.org	631
http://www.nfpvoice.com	10

NFPtweetup 8: RAFBF 1940 chronicle presentation

by NFPtweetup

Accessibility

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 641

Statistics