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The Drum Awards Hi Mum Said Dad Oxfam

Oxfam: Hi Mum! Said Dad

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By Awards Analyst, writer

May 15, 2017 | 8 min read

Hi Mum! Said Dad won various awards, including 'Mobile/Tablet Customer Facing App' at the 2017 MOMA Awards, for their work with Oxfam. The digital product and innovation studio explains the background, objectives, and strategy that made this an award winning campaign.

Background

Charity supporters are surrounded by a raft of advanced digital solutions that augment their everyday life. From Spotify to Amazon, there is a heightened expectation of what brand engagements should look like in the digital space.

Our research suggested that this expectation is greater still amongst charity supporters; in their view, the decision to give generously should be met with a level of recognition and openness from the charity.

Supporters aren’t looking for a metal, rather they’re buying into an ongoing cause and the community that surrounds it.

In practise this means granular transparency on how much the supporter has donated overtime, and real information on how donations are being used.

It means convenient control; e.g. supporters don’t want the guilt and hassle of calling customer services if they need to reduce their direct debt.

And it means personalisation, whether tracking each donation, or surfacing content about projects the supporter is passionate about.

Until now Oxfam were unable to deliver against these expectations, this wasn’t not born out of unwillingness, Oxfam are extremely proud of their activity and do they their best to be inclusive. However the landscape is complex and it’s incredibly difficult to meet these seemingly simple expectations

For instance, a new support could sign up to Oxfam via a street team, telesales, the website, following a text donation, via the app etc - These channels are run separately and street teams and telesales may be augmented by outsourced 3rd parties. The supporter may have signed up to Oxfam because they’re passionate about projects underway in South Sudan, and you can be sure the supporter wants to hear updates about the region. However, the work in South Sudan is just one of many hundred projects. So, how do you carry across recognition of the original trigger with so many fragmented channels and messages?

Despite the complex landscape, our mission was to create a product that met the advanced expectations of our supporters. We had specific commercial objectives to address along with widely held negative industry perceptions.

We knew that the problem could only be answered with a ground-breaking product, something that delivered unparalleled transparency and absolute control.

The solution could be not a stand-alone, it had to consider the many user paths and channels leading to an interaction with Oxfam; it had to consolidates the raft of channels that users could use to sign up or donate through.

My Oxfam app image -  How to support

Objectives

  1. Bring supporters closer to the impact of their giving
  2. Encourage supporters to increase their regular gift amount
  3. Increase lifetime value for our supporters (retention)
  4. Combat high cancellation rates (drop off between sign up and first payment)
My oxfam

Strategy

With our key objectives in mind, Hi Mum! Said and Oxfam set out to launch a product that revolutionises our relationships with supporters, providing unparalleled transparency and immediate financial control.

We conducted interviews, focus groups, survey and shadowed street teams to gather insight into the behaviours and needs of today’s supporter, a handful of common themes surfaced:

  1. Supporters want to get closer to the impact of their giving. They want to know where they’re money is going and what positive impact they’ve had because of their continued support
  2. Supporters want to feel reinforced after they’ve signed up to a charity. The on-boarding moment is crucial for engagement and retention
  3. Supporters feel that once they’ve signed up they’re stuck – between guilt and high pressure tactics, there’s no getting out. The lack of immediate control is a barrier for signing up in the first place.

With that in mind, we set to creating a product that met the demands of today’s supporters as well as directly tackling the overriding negativity that has marred the charity sector in recent years.

It was against this backdrop that the My Oxfam product was born. My Oxfam is a new digital supporter product for Oxfam that drives transparency and control like never before.

The product is comprised of 4 major components;

  1. Regular stories from the ground
  2. A tally of lifetime donations
  3. Immediate donation control
  4. Intelligent content and onboarding.

Each component is specifically designed to meet changing supporter expectations and our mission to bring supporters closer to the impact of their giving.

REGULAR STORIES FROM THE GROUND

We wanted to bring supporters closer to the impact of their giving and in doing so, deliver a window into the lives of beneficiaries. My Oxfam enables supporters to access video, articles and updates from beneficiaries and support staff on the ground.

The content ranges from raw film taken by Oxfam ground staff on their mobile phones, to progress reports on live projects. My Oxfam connects supporters to their regular gift like never before. To increase the lifetime value of a donor, we knew that they needed more reactive information about where their money was going.

A LIFETIME’S SUPPORT

My Oxfam gives users an itemised tally of their donations for the entire lifetime of their support, regardless of how they’ve donated. Supporters could donate via regular direct debit, an SMS or even a clothing donation at their local Oxfam store - each donation is stored for the supporters to see.

The product will also go back and update the tally for historic supporters, even if their support started 20+ years ago. By coupling granular donation records with rich content, we could illustrate the tangible outcomes of supporter generosity, reinforcing the ‘warm glow’ that we know is so conducive to repeat giving.

Surfacing a lifetime of support is easier said than done. It requires a centralised database of all supporter transactions across multiple parts of the business, however, this functionality is a must for true transparency

IMMEDIATE FINANCIAL CONTROL

Supporters can now immediately control the amount of their monthly direct debit at any time within the My Oxfam app. As supporters adjust the amount of their direct debit, the Giving Dial intelligently links the monetary value of the donation to the tangible impact Oxfam can make on beneficiaries around the world.

Immediate control over a direct debit is an industry first and directly addresses a known acquisition barrier, that is, the fear that once you have signed up, you’re stuck.

Allowing supporters to dial up and down their direct debt instantly is brave move, charities rely on regular donations to forecast and plan long term projects - providing instant control removes some of the predictability typically associated with direct debt giving.

PERSONALISED CONTENT AND ONBOARDING

When a supporter puts forward their hard-earned money, they do it because they care about the cause and the outcome. It is essential that onboarding reinforces the triggers that originally motivated the user to sign up. Ongoing engagement thereafter must be personalised and relevant for the supporter.

Failure to do so leads to high abandonment rates directly after sign up and lower lifetime value, through churn or inability to drive incremental donations.

My Oxfam tackles this head on by leveraging an intelligent onboarding program. Through this program, we’re able to identify the topic that motivated our supporter to sign up in the first place and carry that into the first experience with the product.

My Oxfam a single view platform for supporters to manage their unique relationship with Oxfam and the projects made possible through their ongoing support.

Results

  • 69% of those that adjusted their gift have dialled up.
  • Supporter that have downloaded My Oxfam donate X% more than average
  • 4.8 Star app rating
  • Featured in national press including Guardian
The Drum Awards Hi Mum Said Dad Oxfam

Content created with:

Hi Mum! Said Dad

Hi Mum! Said Dad is a digital product and innovation studio.

We define, develop and launch mobile-first digital products and services for companies hungry...

Find out more

Oxfam

Oxfam is an international confederation of charitable organizations focused on the alleviation of global poverty.

www.oxfam.org.uk/

Find out more

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