Pret donates Christmas marketing budget to raise awareness of homeless charities
Pret-a-Manger is shunning traditional Christmas marketing tactics and will instead dedicate its marketing channels and digital media budget to the five charities it works with via the Pret Foundation Trust.
The foundation, which raises money to help the homeless, supports charities incuding Glasgow City Mission, The Choir with No Name, The Clock Tower Sanctuary in Brighton, Cardboard Citizens in Whitechapel, and The 999 Club in Deptford.
To thank customers for their support and to raise awareness of the work these charities carry out, Pret will run a campaign across its social channels and website called ‘A Little Thank You’ which will heavily feature the charities’ stories, with dedicated homepage space for each charity for a week, and new photography and video assets produced.
Pret’s digital media budget will be donated to charity content, including sponsored posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to promote videos, blog posts and news from the charities. On Instagram a portrait photography series will tell the stories of the people they work with through the different charities and Pret’s Apprenticeship Scheme for the homeless and ex-offenders.
Mark Palmer, group director of marketing at Pret said, “We’re delighted to donate our marketing channels and media, both physical and digital, to the Pret Foundation Trust and the charities we work with. It’s our way of saying ‘a little thank you’”.
PR support will also be given to each of the charities to help tell their stories to key media over the winter months.
Yesterday the company kicked off its Christmas menu where 50p from every sandwich and baguette sold from the range will be donated to the Pret Foundation Trust.