Lisa King, director of communications and external relations, Refuge Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Reversible Poems Campaign
Lisa King – director of communications and external
affairs

2. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
All Refuge campaigns aim to:
• Reach women who need our life-saving services
• Raise awareness of the hidden, insidious nature of
domestic violence
• Create buzz and conversation to educate the public on
domestic abuse and spotting the signs
• Reach influencers and industry tastemakers to stand with
Refuge
• High profile to attract funding – Government, corporates,
individuals
Campaign objectives

3. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Campaign inception
September: approached by
acclaimed ad agency McCann
Bristol with the innovative idea of
reversible poems
November: start of an intensive
period of work building the
campaign for maximum impact –
launch planned for the following
month – Christmas 2018!

4. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Campaign inception
December: recognised the huge
PR opportunity and successfully
reached out to PR agency
Fleishman Hillard for pro bono
support
Commenced the roll out of the
most successful pro bono
advertising campaign we have
ever run

5. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Campaign assets
A suite of three poems created to maximise tactical
Christmas moments; a period of additional family
pressures and challenges.
• Mistletoe; ran from early to
mid December
• Christmas Eve; ran mid
December to Christmas Day
• Auld Lang Syne; ran end of
December to start of Jan

6. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Campaign assets
• Print friendly designs
• Interactive mobile versions; when a device is flipped 180
degrees the poems reverse to reveal the chilling message
• Advertising posters; displayed in high profile sites such
as Oxford Circus tube station as well as in print (Woman’s
Own, Marie Claire and Bella)

7. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Campaign assets
Secured Refuge
ambassador and actor
Maxine Peake to record a
radio advert – at a week’s
notice!

8. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Campaign assets
And, thanks to McCann Bristol’s sister agency,
McCann London adding their pro bono weight to the
campaign….
Secured award-winning director Steve Reeves of Another
Film Company to create two powerful 60-second adverts
shot on one continuous rolling film for TV and cinema, end
line read by Maxine Peake……

9. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Campaign assets
Mistletoe; one of two powerful 60 sec clips, shot
in one continuous rolling film

10. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Campaign assets
Auld Lang Syne; screened at the Leicester Square Odeon
and Haymarket Empire, and premiered on Sky One

11. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
• Issued press releases for each of the three poems
• Developed expansive media list (national news desks and
features, lifestyles, trade, influencers, freelancers, broadcast
producers), and a comprehensive work-back plan
• Crafted several pitches, tailored to media outlet and type
• Created social copy and messaging for poems to leverage
across three channels – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
• Ongoing collaborative effort and communication with the
key parties: Refuge, McCann Bristol and Fleishman Hillard
PR tactical support

12. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
‘If your partner turns on you; turn to us’ strapline reinforced
the Jekyll and Hyde behaviours portrayed by abusers who
frequently appear charming, and successfully conveyed that:
• domestic violence is not a private matter, it is everyone’s
responsibility and should not be ignored
• it is a social, not an individual problem
During the campaign, our national helpline received more than
27,000 calls from victims and their family and friends seeking
for help and support.
Results: challenging public
attitudes

13. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Leveraged relationships with influencers and talent agencies,
resulting in social media support from:
• Singer-songwriter Paloma Faith (589.3k followers)
• Girls Aloud Superstar Nicola Roberts (262k followers)
• Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (977k followers)
• Actor David Morrissey (364k followers)
• Spice Girls superstar Mel Brown (1.07m followers) and
many others.
Results: influencer engagement

14. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Results: influencer engagement

15. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Headline stats:
• Refuge’s top tweet of 2018 was related to the campaign and
made more than 358,000 impressions
• In just three weeks, we achieved 6.7m engagement through
Twitter alone
• Incorporating fundraising call to action led to one of our most
successful Christmas appeal to date, raising over £150k with
96% of income generated coming through digital channels
Results: influencer engagement

16. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
• A collaborative team effort achieved 19 pieces of coverage,
including stories in national news, lifestyle and trade
publications
• Highlights include pieces from Cosmopolitan, Refinery29,
The Sun, Metro, The Independent and Third Sector
• Secured interviews with Refuge spokesperson affected by
domestic violence for double page spread in Daily Star
Results: press office

17. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Results: press office

18. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Results: press office
Headline stats:
• Total circulation for coverage achieved: 566,800,387
• 52% in nationals or top tier lifestyle
• 52% of articles included a call to action
• 63% of articles included a link to our website
• Over 1.25 billion media impressions
• Earned media equivalent to £200k

19. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
To prove the campaign was not just a Christmas miracle,
we unveiled our next poem on Valentine’s Day
• Coverage in Metro, The Sun, Her and
others, reaching 47,827,704
• Influencers such as Food Fitness Flora
(81.8k followers) sharing the poem
• Just one post on Twitter and Facebook
achieved impressions of 48k
Further success

20. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
Further success

21. © Copyright Refuge 2015. Registered charity number 277424. A company limited by guarantee 1412276
For more information contact: Lisa_King@refuge.org.uk
@RefugeCharity
www.refuge.org.uk
Thank you

22. PR moments:
using cultural trends and seasonal
events to make the news
PR Network
12 March 2019
London
#charityPR

23. Visit the CharityComms website to
view slides from past events, see
what events we have coming up
and to check out what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk