Contact the Elderly
Campaign message: “Can you make a cup of tea... and chat about anything?” and “Take Sally and Harry to Sunday tea”
Aim: To devise a campaign which could be used in local/regional areas whenever there was a need to find new volunteers in those areas. To increase awareness in Contact the Elderly and clearly explain what’s involved in becoming a volunteer for Contact the Elderly.
Number of people involved: 1 (a project manager)
Launched: 2006
Campaign description: Contact the Elderly’s on-going campaign was designed to stress the low level of time commitment required from a volunteer and the important role they play in helping lonely elderly people in their community. The campaign needed to appeal to their core group of volunteers (in their 50s+). A simple, clear message for a clearly defined volunteer activity.
Research: In 2002 Contact the Elderly commissioned research from the Institute for Volunteering Research to find out more about who their volunteers were. The results have given Contact the Elderly key information for their recruitment campaigns. Their volunteers tend to be over the age of 45, readers of The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Times and local newspapers. They listen to Radio 4 and volunteer for a number of charities.
Poster: Contact the Elderly approached CBS Outdoor (poster contractors on transport systems) to ask if they would consider putting up volunteer campaign posters for the charity on the London Underground. CBS Outdoor agreed to do this and Contact the Elderly then went about designing a poster. The poster was created by Diane Robertson and the cartoonist Kipper Williams (the husband of one of the charity’s volunteers). It was designed to be simple and light-hearted; the black and white cartoon stands out amongst the busy, multi-coloured adverts on the tube. All those who helped them produce the poster for free were credited on the poster.
Postcard: The postcard was designed to recruit volunteer drivers and tea party hosts. The postcard needed to stress that the commitment needed from a volunteer driver is just one Sunday a month and from tea party hosts just one Sunday a year. The postcard needed to be very cheap to produce so that the organisation could circulate it widely at libraries, community shops, hairdressers, dentists, waiting rooms and sports centres in target areas where Contact the Elderly need volunteers. It focuses on the local need for volunteers.
Outside agencies involved: Diane Robertson and Kipper Williams for campaign poster. CBS Outdoor for advertising space on Underground.
Results: Each time a poster appears on the London Underground network, it generates approximately 50 calls to Contact the Elderly from people interested in volunteering. The charity has found that to recruit volunteers in local areas, people need to receive the Contact the Elderly message several times from different places before they actually volunteer: they need to see the postcard in their doctor’s surgery, see it again in their local shop and then read about the Contact the Elderly’s volunteers in the local paper before they get in touch with the charity.
Contact: Marie Holdt www.contact-the-elderly.org
