The Brief

For charities in New Zealand, securing corporate sponsorship is hard work. With over 20,000 other equally deserving organizations vying for the same ever-diminishing resource, even securing a meeting can be all but impossible, especially for a localized charity without a large public profile. Our client, Brothers In Arms (B.I.A.) – a youth mentoring organization – challenged us with finding a new, cost effective way of starting a conversation with potential corporate sponsors and getting B.I.A. to the top of the sponsorship shortlist. Until now, the usual approach of cold-calling and filing applications just wasn’t working.

Creative Execution

With every other charity competing for the same resource, we had to do something to differentiate B.I.A. and then keep them top of mind. Where the usual approach failed, the Bank Job managed to get the attention of the people that mattered, in a meaningful, completely unexpected way. It also caught the imagination of national media. It didn’t just get our mission in front of our target either; it got them to pick up the phone and into dialogue – where we could share the real, life-changing impact of B.I.A. in person – something no application letter could ever achieve.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We made donations to the corporates and in doing so, made them call us. We made a series of $1 deposits into the accounts of top NZ businesses. On the company bank-statement, these deposits linked to form a message to the CFO, demonstrating the power of their small change with B.I.A. Since this “message” couldn’t be balanced against any invoice, it became an impossible to ignore “reconciling error” on the balance sheet, which had to be resolved. The easiest way to do this was simply to return our money. The only way to do that was to call us. Conversation started.

Results

Every single business we targeted called with B.I.A. after receiving the online transfers. 2 of the companies we approached committed to funding B.I.A. after further communication. In total, we transferred exactly 600 dollars. At the close of the campaign, every single dollar was retuned to the bank account of B.I.A. Total campaign cost, excluding agency time, $0. 70% of the companies have expressed interest in partnering with B.I.A. next financial year. These relationships are in continuing dialogue. ROI: Pretty good we think.