The Brief
In 2023, as Ireland was emerging from the pandemic, the country faced an animal welfare crisis with a surge in abandoned pets, animal abuse and a significant decline in adoption rates. ISPCA services were at full capacity. The charity needed to raise funds urgently.
Working with a limited budget and resources, the ISPCA wanted a short, intensive, hard-working campaign that would appeal to hearts and minds and generate support for their cause. The challenge was that many charities had been affected by the pandemic and so our campaign needed to have a clear and simple call to action.
Our Solution
We knew that in order for people to take action, we needed to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Our call to action was simple – donate and rehome. Given the ISPCA’s representation nationwide, we knew the importance of delivering the message both nationally and locally. Working with the ISPCA and their celebrity ambassadors, we created a three-phase national, regional and local campaign, focused on media, and delivered over four months. Our campaign highlighted the crisis nature of the appeal, calling on people to donate money or rehome an animal. We proactively engaged media to cover the story, identified opportunities to newsjack other relevant stories to leverage our campaign, and drove people to the ISPCA website through an ‘always on’ call to action.
Results
The results were unprecedented. In just under four months, our campaign achieved 163 pieces of coverage across print, online and broadcast media, reaching an audience of 28.2million people, coupled with a significant increase in awareness of the ISPCA and the animal crisis.
But the most important metrics were related to our call to action to donate and rehome with our campaign achieving over €250,000 in donations to the ISPCA and 1,200 rehomed dogs. This was the most successful outreach campaign the ISPCA had ever conducted.
