Lindsay Egmore-Frost, Leonardo, Account Director.Glyn Williams, Voluntary Service Overseas, Head of Marketing. Volunteering World is an exhibition (sponsored by VSO) where potential volunteers can meet 50+ volunteering organizations. The exhibition runs for one day (Saturday) at the Business Design Centre in London.Attendance target: 3,000 likely volunteers.The problem was that people expect teachers and nurses to volunteer but not accountants, for example. This is important as VSO is increasingly interested in recruiting business and IT professionals.We had to convince people that there is a need for volunteers from all walks of life (even street entertainers), and then direct potential volunteers to attend Volunteering World.And we had to do it on a very limited budget (£32,000).In traditional media terms, we had to reach ABC1 25 – 55 year olds. But traditional media terms didn’t help us much for this campaign. By their nature, volunteers (and especially ‘unexpected’ volunteers) are very difficult to target. We owned key media corridors that potential volunteers would pass through in the week before and the day of the exhibition. This included everything from posters in the London Underground to hit teams distributing leaflets at key Underground and British Rail stations (e.g. Angel, the stop near the exhibition hall and Liverpool Street, a stop rich with business and IT professionals).

We also used a range of alternative media in order to bring the creative idea to life. We felt that to reach ‘unexpected volunteers’ we had to break through with ‘unexpected media.’This included mock prostitute cards that were left in phone booths around London along side the real ones. The card included a die-cut hole encouraging readers to make do - all because ‘Sexual Sandra’ was in Ghana for three months running workshops about safe sex.Activity included:Poster (fly posted in 48 sheet space)Poster (that should have been a press ad)Mock prostitute cards (offering a handy solution)Cross track poster (in wrong order)Bad street entertainer (setting himself on fire)Ad van (that should have been towed)Flyers handed out by hit squads (who were ‘aesthetically challenged’)Bar postcards (that needed photographs)This campaign was bought on the basis of main routes/proximity to the Business Design Centre rather than traditional coverage and OTS. Importantly, coverage of the campaign in local TV, national radio, national press and marketing press more than doubled the total media value of the campaign.In terms of results, we met the attendance target. Plus, the client reported that the quality of attendees at the event was “higher than ever before.” Proof of this came when VSO ran out of applications at the event. Applications are only given to candidates if judged to be of superior quality.It is also worth noting that VSO website hits increased by over 400% during the campaign. This was a collaborative effort.In terms of traditional roles, Starcom Motive Direct is the media planning and buying agency and Leonardo is the advertising/direct marketing agency.For Volunteering World, we dropped our traditional roles, collapsed the traditional “brief to plan” process and did some old fashioned brainstorming. And we included the PR agency and the creatives in this. As a result, the process was much more fluid - making it difficult to single out any one individual’s contributions.Specifically, the media team worked closely with the account management team to challenge everyone’s thinking about reaching the right people in the right place at the right time. The result: focus upon key media corridors in the week prior to the event.Then, the creative team played a significant role by developing a communications idea that used media as part of the message. This, in turn, pushed our thinking into ‘unexpected media’ so that we would deliver much more than traditional reach and frequency. Because each medium becomes an ambient device as well as a communications vehicle.We knew that outdoor would deliver reach. Our concern was with impact. We had to integrate media and message in such a way that our message broke through in an unexpected way. Perhaps the cross track poster best epitomizes this.We dramatize the effect of the ‘unexpected volunteers’ departure upon VSO’s communications. The order of poster sheets is wrong enough to communicate ‘badly done’ while also drawing you in to complete the message. This works particularly well in the cross track environment because the reader has extra time to work out the message.

This was a collaborative effort.In terms of traditional roles, Starcom Motive Direct is the media planning and buying agency and Leonardo is the advertising/direct marketing agency.For Volunteering World, we dropped our traditional roles, collapsed the traditional “brief to plan” process and did some old fashioned brainstorming. And we included the PR agency and the creatives in this. As a result, the process was much more fluid - making it difficult to single out any one individual’s contributions.Specifically, the media team worked closely with the account management team to challenge everyone’s thinking about reaching the right people in the right place at the right time. The result: focus upon key media corridors in the week prior to the event.Then, the creative team played a significant role by developing a communications idea that used media as part of the message. This, in turn, pushed our thinking into ‘unexpected media’ so that we would deliver much more than traditional reach and frequency.