Background

Did you know that 1 in 9 people worldwide do not have access to clean water? That’s why, every year, WaterAid challenges Australians to “raise a glass to the one drink the world can’t live without”, asking participants to help raise the funds needed to solve this global water shortage problem. In 2020, the NGO asked us to craft a creative campaign that could turn this problem into a relatable issue for two key audiences they identified: the “Healthies” (fitness fans who donate to join the challenge but don’t raise funds beyond that) and the “Greenies” (WaterAid supporters who frequently join the challenge). Our aim was to help the Healthies understand that more than a reminder to stay hydrated, the challenge is a crucial means of fundraising for people in need. Meanwhile, we needed to activate the Greenies as WaterAid supporters and get them to encourage others to join in.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

WaterAid needed to engage WaterAid Challenge participants to help drive more donations for those in need. Instead of creating one piece of content for the NGO, we delivered thousands of videos: one for every single fundraiser. Based on insights about the two key audiences that WaterAid wanted to reach, we repurposed WaterAid’s existing assets to tailor our videos to the priorities and motivators of each: To strike a chord with the Healthies, we framed the challenge as an opportunity to stay healthy while doing good for millions of people. For the Greenies, we focused on impact, emphasising how their participation is helping people in need and framing the challenge’s health benefits as a bonus. Then, we rendered thousands of videos uniquely tailored to each recipient using our personalisation engine to make participants feel like the NGO was talking directly to them – and only them.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We knew that our personalisation engine, voundry, would be the perfect solution for reaching WaterAid’s large and varied audiences in a personal, compelling way. voundry can render over 100,000 unique videos in minutes and enabled us to work resourcefully, by repurposing WaterAid’s existing assets into a new, personalised video for each challenger. With data provided by WaterAid (and divided by audience category), we could address each recipient by name, appeal to their specific reasons for participating, and remind them of the need for donations. A key consideration which drove our campaign at the time was the wildfires devastating large areas all over Australia. We realised that unlike previous WaterAid Challenges, this year called for a special sensitivity in light of the difficult situation. So aside from spanning a range of motivations, our targeted messages used encouraging language to strike the right tone of voice, even when sharing hard-hitting facts.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The Water Challenge started on 1st March 2020 and continued for the whole month, during which our 2,000+ personalised videos were sent individually to fundraisers via email to empower and motivate them to keep going with the challenge. Our execution schedule had to take into consideration two main factors: Firstly, that we were working between different time zones, with WaterAid and its audience based in Australia, and our production team in the UK. Nevertheless, we worked closely with WaterAid to bring all of our scripts to life using existing content supplied by the NGO. Secondly, with this being a live campaign, we needed to deliver videos in a timely manner to optimise our chances of making an impact on recipients – inviting participants to take action, quickly. We did this by rendering videos with our personalisation engine, voundry, which processes thousands of videos in near real time.

List the results (30% of vote)

Already in the initial months of the campaign, emails sent to the Greenies audience achieved an open rate of 32% – the highest of any email for the 2020 WaterAid Challenge. Meanwhile, click through on those emails ists at 33% – again, the highest click-through rate of any email sent by WaterAid Challenge. The smart use of WaterAid’s existing assets meant that we were able to offer a cost-effective yet tailored solution to our client – crucial for a nonprofit that needs to maximise its funds for communities in need. The campaign was also WaterAid’s first foray into personalised marketing, and as content lovers, we’re proud to have made that first experience a successful one for them. Best of all: Our videos helped to raise funds for bringing clean water to 785 million people worldwide.