How do charities influence us at Christmas? What techniques do marketers use for maximum impact in Christmas Charity advertising campaigns?
No matter how you celebrate Christmas or whatever term you use for this December festival/celebration, there is one element which we are forced to accept & that is that not everyone will be having a ‘Merry Christmas’
Christmas is inherently a time of festive cheer, family & above all about giving. Regardless of faith or ethnic heritage, the festival of Christmas is celebrated by millions around the world in a plethora of different ways.
In the UK we traditionally give & receive gifts & eat a roast turkey dinner on Christmas day. In Germany, people work on Christmas eve until lunchtime, return to their homes to a feast which usually entails duck or goose & they open their gifts on Christmas eve. Australia sees a lot families spend part of their Christmas day on the beach, eating such things as salads & seafood.
However, no matter how you celebrate Christmas or whatever term you use for this December festival/celebration, there is one element which we are forced to accept & that is that not everyone will be having a ‘Merry Christmas’
Christmas being a traditionally family celebration can be particularly hard for many. Those who are alone, homeless & desperate find this celebratory time of year particularly difficult. Therefore, it is noticeable that charities tend to change their campaigns to reflect this seasonal time of year. Virtually Smart Ltd have looked at some the techniques the marketers from three major charities have used to entice & engage audiences, with the sole purpose of giving financial support to them. The three chosen charities are The Samaritans, Shelter & The British Red Cross..
The Samaritans.
The Samaritans are a voluntary organisation run entirely on public donations. Their signs & telephone numbers are placed in strategic areas, to entice people to talk, rather than take sometimes devastating & drastic action.
One of the most powerful messages a charitable advertising campaign can extol, is to try & put you the reader/listener/watcher in the shoes of the person they are trying to support. This emotive standpoint enables the potential philanthropist to make a decision about his/her donation. The following text is from The Samaritans Christmas campaign 2018.
“GIVE THE GIFT OF LISTENING THIS CHRISTMAS AND HELP SAVE A LIFE
1 in 3 calls to Samaritans on Christmas Day are from people, who feel lonely and isolated.
Samaritans are currently researching the impact of loneliness and isolation on young people, and our findings will become available to our supporters in early 2019.
Thank you for choosing to give the gift of listening today. Your kindness could save the life of someone struggling to cope this Christmas.
It could be the most important gift you give this year.” (1)
The Samaritans have this year tapped in to a very prevalent news story from 2018, in that Loneliness could now be being treated as a psychological disorder, which can have far reaching physical consequences alongside it.
“The findings of a recent BBC loneliness survey – that a third of respondents (55,000 in the UK) often felt lonely, that there was shame attached, that it could affect people of all life stages, that it was connected to social media use and linked with ill health – flesh out the detail behind discussion of a “loneliness epidemic”.” (2)
One of the many elements of English Language teaching I undertook during my years as a Secondary School English teacher, was the way in which the language of advertising was so very effective. I taught my many students the following commonly used mnemonic to help them remember some of the key linguistic choices marketers use to affect their target audiences:
A – Alliteration, F – Facts, O – Opinion, R – Repetition & rhetorical questions, E – Emotive language, S – Statistics, T – Three, list of three
The Samaritans advert utilises many of these key linguistic triggers. The very first line uses alliterative notions with the key words ‘Give’ & ‘Gift’. The human mind has the ability to focus on alliterative language & will embed those terms.
The second line of the advert employs statistics & facts to ensure the reader feels that they are being given factual information to be able to make an informed choice. Furthermore, they inform the reader that they are undertaking research into the psychological affects of loneliness, further corroboration of their key message. The repetition of ‘lonely’ ‘loneliness’ further cements the bread crumb message that the language is laying before you, further helping you to make an emotive decision based on the poignant content.
The last two paragraphs focus on another powerful marketer technique, whereby the use of second person pronouns makes the decision about ‘you’ & ‘Your’ decision & how this can affect a person in need.
The effect of the language is emotive, powerful & gives the onus back to the reader; entirely allowing them to make an emotively charged decision.
Shelter.
Shelter are a vast scope charitable organisation, supporting homeless people & families across the UK, protecting those who are victims of evictions & giving advice to those in housing crisis.
“Everyone deserves a safe, secure, and affordable place to call home. But every 13 minutes, another family in England becomes homeless. That’s why, with your help, we campaign relentlessly to tackle the root causes of the housing crisis. Changes to the law can make a huge difference, and your voices are at the heart of that.” (3)
The Shelter campaign this year focuses on a tragic story which happens all too often. The outcome of this story has a positive ending, but again it is the language they use which enables them to be so very successful in securing the extremely important funding they receive from charitable donations.
“When Kimberley and her family became homeless they spent Christmas in a single hostel room. All four of them. Kimberley, her husband Mark, their 3-year-old son Kai and baby daughter Mya.
The space was so small they had to eat dinner on the beds. They could only put up one decoration because there was no room for a tree. Little Kai couldn’t sleep and Kimberley and Mark were barely coping.
That’s when Kimberley called our helpline.” (4)
The first thing one notices is that the story evolves around a family. As Christmas is meant to be a time of family & being together, this emotive tag line is guaranteed to evoke an emotional response in families across the UK. The fact that an entire family spent the most festive part of the UK year in a single hostel room, is devastatingly factual. We don’t need to know if Kimberley is the mothers real name, we just know, that this is awful & it should not be allowed to happen in modern day England.
The inclusion of children in the text, further adds the layers of emotive content to the advertising campaign. Furthermore, the structure of the paragraphs aids the impact as the story unfolds. Having two short paragraphs, followed by a one-line paragraph, adds maximum effect for the reader, as we inevitably hope for positive outcome.
The British Red Cross
One of the most dramatic & equally powerful charitable video adverts I have ever seen, was on behalf of the British Red Cross.
The imagery which goes along with the video is a young woman & a dog walking through scrub land, through woods, alongside a dark canal. She comes to a standstill overlooking a town lit up at night & finally makes her way to watch a family in their home, all the while her face half illuminated by moon light or street lights & an emotionless expression on her face. The monologue spoken throughout the video is chilling.
“I am the fire that leaves you homeless.
A heart attack in ‘Aisle 6’.
The prescription you cannot collect.
I am the candy stuck in your child’s throat.
The highway pile-up that leaves you traumatized.
The food shopping you cannot do.
I am the reason you need a wheelchair.
The flood that leaves you stranded.
The empty house when you return from hospital.
I am a crisis.
And I don’t care who you are. “
This haunting & dark personification of a crisis, leaves a lasting impression on the watcher, as the language resonates deeply. The main difference between the linguistic skills used here, as the other two examples analysed previously, is that the repetition of the first person singular pronoun in the ‘Crisis’ advert is ‘I’
The use of first-person pronouns usually has the effect of isolating an audience, as the dialogue is deemed to be self-centred & not involve the listeners. In this case, the first person ‘I’ is used to devastating affect as the audience slowly realises that the female character is the personification of an actual crisis. Whereas second person pronouns are meant to involve & encourage an audience, in this case they are repeatedly used as a negative to show the tragedy a crisis can bring to anyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from. In the Crisis video, the ‘You’ &’Your’ is the victim, making the watcher directly involved.
Therefore, although we have only evaluated the linguistics & in one case the visual impact of three charitable organisations Christmas Campaigns, we can see how each one taps in to the mnemonic A FOREST in differing degrees. It is the affect of the language & how this emotively connects us to the message which enables Christmas Charity campaigns to be so very successful & encourage us all to give generously at this festive time of year.
Written by Katy-Jane on behalf of Virtually Smart Ltd.
(1)https://www.samaritans.org/gift?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlczD1ICn3wIVwjLTCh1ODQ3-EAAYAiAAEgIot_D_BwE
(2)https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/01/loneliness-illness-body-mind-epidemic
(3)https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns
(5) https://www.redcross.ca/about-us/red-cross-videos/i-am-a-crisis
