home case studies
WaterAid Case Study

l_wateraidlogo

The Organisation WaterAid was established in 1981 with a focus on campaigning to raise awareness and funds to end water poverty. The Challenge WaterAid's ambition is to join the ranks of other major international development charities such as Save the Children and Oxfam as quickly as possible. To achieve this aim brand awareness needs to be increased and maintained whilst generating significant levels of income to carry out relatively long-term life-saving projects. The Insight WaterAid's core proposition is really simple: Give Water, Give Life. We felt this proposition could take a huge amount of exposure without experiencing diminishing returns.

Our experience in the charity sector has taught us that charities are most successful in raising funds if the audience sees that the funds are needed immediately. This can be difficult if the organisation isn't involved in disaster relief.

Our Solution We believed that advertising consistently on TV over a year would give WaterAid brand stature and help communicate a sense of urgency.

To maintain cost efficiency we bought a classic DRTV schedule using long formats across daytime, upweighting in key times of the year with C4 and as well as ITV. TV activity was also used to support door drop activity.

We needed to bear in mind that, traditionally, supporters recruited from TV have a poorer lifetime value. In order to rectify this, we deliberately emphasised online donation to ensure that those people who donated were far more likely to remain loyal.

The Results
  • We have consistently achieved an ROI of over 0.6 which is considerably more that the norm for most other charities
  • We have found that TV activity has played a major part in increasing income by 9% during a recessional period
What we did Raised brand awareness and generated income for a relatively young charity
Client View "Having worked with mc&c specifically on the planning and purchase of DRTV media for a number of years, WaterAid handed its entire media planning and buying account to mc&c in summer 2008. Over the past year and a half, mc&c have helped us to integrate our media planning to maximise the impact of our investments, whilst at the same time helping us drive down costs through a robust approach to utilising distress buying. Best of all, the team at mc&c are enjoyable to work with and we have a relationship that is based on mutual trust. mc&c have immersed themselves in our business priorities and we have every confidence that recommendations are based on their very best analysis and understanding of our needs."

Angharad McKenzie
Head of Supporter Development
WaterAid

 

AAP
ActionAid
Arquiva
Aspinall Foundation 
Association of Teachers and Lecturers
Atlas Editions
Bid Chase
Borough Market
Britannica.com
Bullion Vault
Carbon Trust
Care International
Cash4Gold
Christian Aid
Compton & Woodhouse
Direct Wines/Laithwaites
DMA

Early Learning Centre
Exeter Friendly Society
First Bus
Freeview
Friends of the Earth
Good Energy
Guide Dogs for the Blind
Gucci Watches
Hoburne Holidays 
Holiday Property Bond
Jack Wills
Life's 2 Good
Motability
Mothercare UK
myakka
NDCS
PDSA

Petplan
Postcomm
Prestige Cosmetics
Reflect Energy RNID
RSPCA
Salvation Army
Sense 
Spreadex
Tourism Ireland
Unicef
WaterAid
Which?
Wimpy