Billion Minutes
Campaign message: "Give a billion minutes" and "There's no present like the time"
Aim: Year of the Volunteer 2005 aimed "to specifically encourage young people, those with no qualifications, black and minority ethnic groups and people with disabilities to get involved. It also set out to "increase the opportunities to volunteer and encourage more people to find out about volunteering and get involved"
Number of people involved: Unknown
Launched: 2005
Campaign description: Year of the Volunteer 2005 was a year long national campaign across the UK, funded by the Home Office with a budget of around £7million. The "Billion Minutes" marketing and communications campaign was created to raise the profile of the Year of the Volunteer.
Advertising: Outdoor advertising space was purchased across the country, as well as in national print and broadcast media. Billion Minutes also received pro-bono media support to the value of £2.3million from supporters such as BSkyB, GCap Media, EMAP, MTV, News International and many more.
Advertorial: Matthew Pinsent and Miss Dynamite were two of the celebrities who endorsed the Billion Minutes campaign. As part of the communications campaign, an advertorial was placed in Closer magazine.
PR work: To reinforce the campaign, editorial coverage was secured in the national press with the call to action "Pledge your volunteer minutes at www.yearofthevolunteer.org". A media pack / factsheet was sent out to all target media about the campaign.
Outside agencies involved: Media Trust and Heavenly Marketing
Results: 1.6 billion minutes were pledged by the end of 2005 and the campaign was thought to have been a boost to the Year of the Volunteer.
Whilst Billion Minutes was successful in raising awareness of volunteering, the final evaluation raised some concerns about whether all the pledged minutes turned into volunteering action. It also showed that the Billion Minutes campaign was "catchy" but had placed an emphasis on one of the key barriers to participation - time.
These findings are taken from Year of the Volunteer Review: A report for Home Office provided by GfK Social Research.
Contact: John Knights, Office of the Third Sector www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/the_third_sector
