The Christmas period is only one part of a year-round approach to fundraising for Shelter. This year our campaign work with them starts in early November, running until Mid December. The charity will revisit inserts and direct mail, supported by digital display.&nbsp;
The creative message is a powerful one. It turns the lens on the under-reported scandal of children as the casualties of the housing crisis. We are reminded&nbsp; '...this Christmas more than 120,000 children in the UK will be left in temporary accommodation. A damp shipping container. A badly converted office block. A cramped B&amp;B with 6 people to a room. This is not a home.'
As keen advocates of a well-rounded multi-channel strategy, we're excited to see what can be achieved for Shelter as they deliver this year's hard-hitting message through sometimes underrated 'legacy' channels. It's a considered approach in what is expected to be a notoriously difficult year for donations.
Our work across the homeless sector is in partnership with the creative and strategy agency Catalyst Works.

‘One Child Waking Up Homeless at Christmas is a Tragedy’

September and October are bellwethers for Autumn spending behaviour in the charity sector. By the time Autumn 2022 campaigns were in the planning stage we knew it was going to be an exceptionally tough period - more so than the first half of the year. So if caution was going to creep into investment decisions we'd see the trend emerge in the Q3 months.
The latest Nielsen data for October dropped last week so we crunched the numbers to see what they could tell us.
We stripped out the Direct Mail figures because these include warm mailing spend, leaving us a picture across 7 channels, Door Drops, TV, Press, Radio, Digital, Outdoor &amp; Cinema. Nielsen doesn't report Paid Social data so we can't include this.
Isolating September &amp; October activity, we looked back to 2018 to compare how the sector was investing during 'normal', pandemic-free years. We also analysed the Top 10 Charity Ad Spends vs Everyone Else, just in case their financial weight significantly skewed the picture.
The good news, charity ad spend in September &amp; October was the highest it has been since 2018. In October inflation hit a 40 year high, demand for food banks surged by 46%, and energy price rises were the highest on record. Charities responded and increased their YOY investment in acquisition campaigns by 14%. The trend can be seen in organisations big and small.
<a href="https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/ukgivingreport2009.pdf">The CAF report</a> that followed the 2008 recession said that while some donors felt the need to reduce what they give, they still gave what they could.
Acquisition helps charities to compensate for those who need to give a little less by bringing new donors to their cause. That can only be achieved by continuing to showcase their work and telling the world they exist. The Nielsen exercise reveals a sector with the wisdom to be bold in times of extremis.

Are You Being Bold This Autumn?

There is no cure for EB, which causes the skin to become extremely fragile and to blister and tear at the slightest touch. As a result, sufferers experience constant and extreme pain. Debra is the national charity and patient support group for people living with the condition.
This November, we are supporting Debra as they launch a small test fundraising campaign to raise awareness of the rare skin condition. 
The campaign message draws attention to the enduring pain that is suffered and states the instinctive reaction in us all, &lsquo;No one should have to live like this&rsquo;, using #StopThePain.
This initial &ldquo;toe in the water&rdquo; will tap into the high levels of economic reach and frequency delivered by paid social channels. The learnings from the campaign will inform wider channel selection in potential roll out activity in early 2023.

A Life Free of Pain

"Don't panic! I have no idea what this is yet." The Whatsapp message attached to an image of draft creative ideas that had us excited from the off. 
And so began the process that started in July and made it over the line in December. Not quite the late Summer launch we'd envisaged but holidays and work, and more work, and a bit more work, just meant it all hummed along pleasantly in the background for a while.
It feels right to log the launch of a website we're so proud of, and have put so much work into. But the point of this post is not to pat ourselves on the back, it's to celebrate the people who made it happen. 
It's a rare thing indeed to share a vision, one which is more of a feeling than an actual thing, only to see it made glorious reality in a first iteration. Dave Sedgwick of<a href="https://www.instagram.com/studiodbd/"> StudioDBD</a> did just that for us. How did he know what was in our heads when even we didn't, until he showed it to us? The man is not only a gifted designer, he always had an answer and made the process a joy.
This is being delightedly typed into the easiest CMS ever thanks to the brilliant, and patient, developer Maria Nery who morphed from freelance into employment mid build, but burnt the midnight oil to make sure we had our site when we needed it. 
Deeply chilled and talented photographer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/laurenquarmby/?hl=en">Lauren Quarmby</a> managed to take the pain out of being in front of a lens and delivered headshots we could bear to look at - result! 
Lastly, Copywriter <a href="https://www.trakellishill.co.uk/">Trak Ellis-Hill</a>, whose CV intimidated the bejeebers out of us, but who took us on and knocked us into shape in her unique and lovely way. All the good bits are hers.

Media Doing Good

More than 300 deaths each year have been linked to illegal levels of pollution in Tyneside, in emission hotspots such as the centre of Newcastle. 
The Newcastle Clean Air Zone is part of a Government initiative to improve air quality across the UK designed to address these issues, and reduce the number of older, more polluting vehicles in city centres
This Autumn, we are supporting both Newcastle and Gateshead City councils as they launch a campaign that will inform people of the introduction of the zone in 2023, and what they need to do if it affects them.
 The campaign is designed to generate awareness of the zone across the whole of the North East in general, and a tighter geographical region around Newcastle itself in particular, and will run through the Autumn of 2022 and the first half of 2023.
The emphasis is on high impact, high awareness, high coverage media channels. The strategy includes Iconic OOH digital sites in prime locations, Adsmart geo targeted to a radius around the city, key regional media and paid social to reach our two defined targets, the public at large &amp; taxi and van drivers.
The broad spread of channels ensures impact and coverage by reaching people at many different times and in many different ways in order to drive home transmission of the message. It's the Root mantra - catch 'em everywhere you can!

Newcastle Clean Air Zone

It could be described as scribblings. It's a log of work in hand, it's a brain dump, it's a home for the random yet relevant. It’s a bit more of Root you might like to see.