TOP US IF you’ve heard this one. What do Basil Fawlty and a young Obi Wan Kenobi have in common? Not much-unless you count an authoritative manner and their portrayers’ participation in Comic Relief.
Monty Python veteran John Cleese and “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” star Ewan McGregor are among the celebrities who appeared March 12 in Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day, a biannual fundraising event in the United Kingdom. In 1997, the organization raised a record 27 million British pounds (#)-about $44 million U.S.-and is quietly confident of beating that this year. That’s good going, considering the charity is only beginning to utilize the traditional vehicle for most fundraising, direct marketing.
Comic Relief’s main money maker is a six-hour telethon on the BBC that combines performances by top British comedians such as Lenny Henry and Dawn French with documentary footage on the causes donations help (McGregor hosts a segment on work in Africa).
The organization-which isn’t a relief agency itself but acts as a grant maker to groups such as Oxfam and Shelter, a U.K. charity for the homeless-also sells Red Nose Day merchandise at official sponsor outlets, including t-shirts, food products and, of course, red noses. But, says Amanda Horton-Mastin, marketing director, its no joke that Comic Relief needs to “try and become cleverer at direct marketing.”
The organization’s database currently lists several hundred thousand names, representing only a limited portion of the total donor base. That’s because only individuals who send in a donation by mail-and include their name and address-are added. Donations received by this route in 1997 amounted to #4 million of the total take. These supporters get mailed a thank-you certificate, together with a newsletter once or twice a year.
Data on the much bigger pool of supporters, such as those who made payments at banks and post offices worth #8 million, is not currently available to the charity. “We can’t track that,” says Horton-Mastin, because there is no data capture mechanism possible in those channels.
As for the telephone donations made during the telethon, the emphasis is on ensuring accurate credit card details are captured. Average donations by phone were #21 in 1997, with 445,000 calls over six hours. This year, 30 call centers will be handling calls, with all staff working for free. That makes it the largest direct response activity in the country by a long chalk, even though Comic Relief has not yet captured name and address data from incoming calls, mainly to keep call durations to a minimum.
Cost has been the main obstacle to adopting DM more broadly, especially when it comes to direct mail. Comic Relief is unusual among charities in that it pledges for every #1 given, it will spend #1 on good causes. That is only possible because all of the production costs of its marketing materials are covered by corporate sponsors. With a growing emphasis on leveraging the existing donor data, however, sponsored direct mail may be a possibility, but not until the next appeal in 2001.
Where the database has played an important role has been in segmenting the known donor base to identify key target groups. Comic Relief attracts a high level of donations from the 16 to 35-year age group, who are not generally major charity donors, while also having strong support among the more traditional 45-plus market.
Sample donors are used in focus groups to discuss the support materials which are developed to help the public’s own sponsored activities. Four targeted promotional packs have been produced for 1999, aimed at pre-school children, schools, fundraising at work and students. These are distributed through schools and higher education colleges, as well as to anybody who contacts the charity for information on they can help. Students at England’s Sheffield University, for example, have planned a fashion show to raise funds.
The student pack was written by the magazine Viz, a grown-ups’ comic with an emphasis on the subversive and scatalogical.
John Cleese is featured in the pack targeted at office workers, which suggests stress-busting activities to raise funds, including sponsored massages, sending a record number of e-mails, job swaps or inter-office dating games.
“Stress relief is an issue for companies. Human resources are working on it at a senior level,” says Horton-Mastin.
The split of revenue by activity shows the importance of off-air participation and marketing. Donations on the night of the last telethon in 1997 were #9 million, while sales of merchandise produced #6 million. Fundraising activities by the public added #12 million.
“It is all about single donations. Not a few people or companies raising thousands, but hundreds of thousands of people making small donations. It doesn’t matter how much people give, just give a little,” says Horton-Mastin. This was reflected in the 1997 slogan, “small change, big difference,” and in the causes which Comic Relief supports.
Launched in 1985 by Richard Curtis, the writer of Four Weddings, and Jane Tewson, Comic Relief began by trying to help relieve the famines in Sudan and Africa. While Live Aid put musicians on the world stage that year, the first Comic Relief events put comedians onto theatre stages in London. The first crossover onto TV came on Christmas Day in 1985. This was followed in February 1986 by a cover version 1960s song “Living Doll” featuring the original singer, Cliff Richards, and the comedy troupe The Young Ones, which raised #250,000.
The second comedy night was broadcast by the BBC in the same year, and they went on to organize two highly-successful investment races in London’s financial district. It was only when the organization stood back to decide how to proceed that the concept of Red Nose Day finally emerged in 1988.
That was also the first year in which Comic Relief introduced the idea of selling plastic red noses at #1 each. “No one had any idea how the public was going to respond,” says Horton-Mastin.
“We produced 400,000 noses, which were sold through the Wimpy hamburger franchises, and Oxfam and Save the Children charity shops,” she says. “The whole lot sold out in days.”
Variations on the nose in subsequent years have involved covering them in fun fur, making larger noses to put on the front of cars and having noses which light up. This year, Comic Relief has produced “the hooter”-a nose which squeeks when squeezed. “A radio producer said to me, ‘at last, a red nose for radio’,” says Horton-Mastin. The organization hopes to sell 4.5 million.
“The challenge for Comic Relief since then has been to keep the same freshness. We have to make sure it is always exciting, entertaining and fun to get involved,” she says. That is one reason why the event is only held every other year, having initially run two in a row in 1988 and 1989.
The theme for this year’s Red Nose Day is “the Record Breaker” with an eye to beating previous totals, although Horton-Mastin says there is no pressure on people to drum up as much cash as possible. “It is not as much about raising massive amounts of money, but setting their own record,” she says.
One radio DJ on a national music station is planning to broadcast for 36 hours non-stop. There will also be the biggest-ever wine tasting, as part of Wine Relief, with thousands of liquor stores taking part.
Since initially targeting famine relief, Comic Relief is now focused on alieviating hardship and discrimination in the U.K. and Africa.
“We try and put money into areas where it is hard to raise money for that issue. It is not famine relief any more because Government money has gone in,” she says. The goal is to support schemes over three to five years in order to have a long-term effect. “There is no point going in with a quick fix.”
The TV show certainly gets the ratings. In 1997, 20 million viewers tuned in over the course of the telethon, with a peak of 11.7 million at any one time. That gave the show an average of 40% share of the total U.K. audience, rising to 70% share after 12 p.m. “That is why the BBC wants it on air. It gives them their biggest Friday audience of the year,” says Horton-Mastin.
The Internet is providing a new opportunity for direct communications. The Comic Relief Web site (www.comicrelief.org.uk/) took four million hits during the previous appeal, with 30,000 pledges coming in through that channel. This year, the site is linked to the BBC’s Beeb site (www.rednoseday.beeb.com/), which is one of the most popular in the U.K., and had already taken 750,000 hits just three days after launch. For the future, this is likely to offer an ideal channel for data gathering because it is low cost and does not have the capacity issues of telephone response handling.
Horton-Mastin’s own involvement with the charity provides one insight into why people enjoy the event so much. In 1988, Horton-Mastin was working at Procter and Gamble and raised sponsorship money by wearing a plastic nose at work for a day. In those days, the Red Nose Day concept was still new, especially at such a relatively conservative workplace. “Being a good convent girl, the idea of doing something rebellious was so exciting. It was such fun to do. It really did make people laugh because it was so unusual,” she says.
She then moved into the corporate fundraising department at Save The Children, where Wendy Riches (now marketing director at Hasbro) was also working. She became marketing director for Comic Relief in 1994, working towards the 1995 event. This year she has managed to find time out from the 18-month build up to have a baby, returning just before the official launch, five weeks ahead of 1999 Red Nose Day.
There are many things which make Comic Relief unusual. For one thing, it was started by comedians, not professional fundraisers. It makes giving to charity fun, rather than seeking to produce a response through shock or pity. It is also not part of the on-going pattern of charity events, since it now occurs only every other year and must raise all of its funds in one day.
But what makes it particularly different is the combination of telethon, public events and merchandising. Few other charities have gone so far in harnessing every aspect of consumer life as a channel for donations. As Horton-Mastin says: “It is marketing-led, not issues-led.” With the prospect of direct marketing playing a greater role in future years, those noses should start getting even redder.
