Real farmers telling their stories was the focus of Rural Aids’ end of financial year fundraising campaign, devised and executed by Brisbane-based independent agency, New Word Order (NWO).
The campaign outstripped expectations thanks to a creative strategy that connected farmers’ heart-felt stories with potential donors.
NWO created a campaign based on interviews with Australian farmers who had experiences with Rural Aid. The result was an honest campaign of authentic stories, highlighting real emotion and truthfulness.
NWO built two tiers of messaging into their campaign: an EOFY donations appeal and a thank you. The agency focused heavily on digital channels that could A/B test the messaging as well as capture the audience with retargeting through its media partner, Pivotus.
Pivotus also took existing donor databases (comprising of combined regular donors and one of donors) and created lookalike audiences for digital prospecting and retargeting.
In the past there has been a lack of understanding of what drives supporters, with traditional support being off the back of disaster recovery efforts such as drought, flood and fire. However, this cycle is changing and Rural Aid’s efforts have pivoted to building resilience and sustainability to support the ability of farmers and rural communities to sustain their health and livelihood into the future.
The display banners and static Facebook posts pointed people to the EOFY Rural Aid landing page where viewers could view the full videos and choose to donate.
Jaimie Robertson, fundraising marketing and communications manager, Rural Aid, said: “The campaign is certainly having a positive impact and the idea of featuring real farmers telling their story was insightful for many staff who might not get the chance to speak with, or hear from farmers very often. NWO were great to work with. They took an interest in our organisation and what we’re trying to achieve, and this shone through in the quality and emotion captured in the final production.”
Kathryn Scott, account manager/producer at New Word Order added: “This is a campaign I am very proud to have been involved with. Despite being part of the storytelling process behind the scenes, I was very moved at every stage of the process by how tough these Australians have it on a daily basis, and how candid they were with us about their stories. It’s hard to wrap your head around how much we all owe them and how little support they receive.”
CREDITS
Client
Rural Aid
Team
Scott Oxford – Creative and Strategy Director, Account Director
Kathryn Scott – Producer/Director, Account Manager
Liam Ryan – Copywriter
Andrew McGuckin – Art Director
Julia Cavallaro and Alice Kaps – Design
Partners
Pivotus – Media partners
