ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Tommy’s - Saving babies’ lives through a £1.1m national fundraising campaign
THE PROBLEM:
Tommy’s is the largest charity funding research into miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth. One in four parents will lose a baby through these tragedies. Tommy’s mission is to halve the number of babies who die in such circumstances by 2030.
Tommy’s chose Bottle to create and deliver the PR campaign for its flagship biennial Splashathon, to heighten awareness and drive fundraising across the UK.
Splashathon generated £816,477 in 2015: Bottle’s brief was to hit the million pound mark in 2017, providing funds for Tommy’s National Miscarriage Research Centre – the largest of its kind in Europe.
THE SOLUTION:
Splashathon was already successful, having been identified as the fastest growing mass participation fundraising event in the UK, and breaking into the top 25 for the first time in 2015.
Bottle’s challenge was to be distinctive, cutting through donor fatigue and noise. Our campaign needed to connect on multiple levels, with diverse audiences across the UK.
WHAT WE DID:
• Identified and engaged Una Healy of The Saturdays as a celebrity ambassador, to speak candidly about her own battle with post-natal depression
• Collaborated with Water Babies, the UK’s leading baby swim school, to increase regional exposure and participation, including a coordinated approach to local events, with newspaper photocalls and radio interviews
• Designed a Splashathon micro-site, in partnership with Peppa Pig
• Commissioned research, which found that more than half of new mothers feel isolated in their day-to-day life
• Sourced and crafted compelling case studies
• Planned and executed a social media campaign, including creation and promotion of the #SplashFace video
Our integrated approach, including media relations, content creation, social media, partner engagement, and celebrity endorsement ensured that the Splashathon events were high profile, driving participation.
The key to ensuring success was the passion that the Bottle team felt for Tommy’s, resulting in our media relations campaign generating widespread and universally positive coverage.
THE RESULTS:
• Splashathon raised £1,151,698, beating the £1,000,000 target – a 41% uplift on the previous event
• The number of fundraising participants doubled, from 4,950 to 9,979
• 447 pieces of coverage, an increase of 119% on 2015, including 36 pieces of national and consumer coverage, up by 800%, including; Mirror, Metro, Express, Daily Mail and Huffington Post
• Una Healey appeared on the ITV daytime show Loose Women, speaking candidly about her personal experience
• Our #Splashface video was viewed 136,000 views on Facebook alone
• More than 10,000 people viewed a Splashathon web page, with an average time on page of 5m 30s