How O2 and Just So boosted brand love and War Child donations during BRITs Week

O2 asked us to promote ‘BRITs Week War Child Together with O2’, with the objective of increasing charity donations (through a ticket ballot) and drive brand love for O2. In this case, ‘brand love’ was measured by increased association between O2 and its sponsorship of War Child and BRITs Week with a target of surpassing the amount raised in 2018.

• Comms task: big ideas to raise awareness of ‘War Child BRITs Week Together With O2’ and the cause.
• Key message: O2 brings you unforgettable live music.
• Measures of success: brand metric shifts – awareness and consideration, donations, positive share of voice, engagement, views & view-through rates.

The strategy

The BRITs is an annual celebration of the best new music in Britain. For the past five years, O2 has partnered with the War Child UK charity to raise money for children affected by war.

Through a series of gigs, fans get the opportunity to see the biggest names in music in intimate venues across the UK. Fans are asked to donate £5 to enter into a prize draw to see their artist of choice and can enter as many times as they like to maximise chances of winning.

Our strategy found an opportunity for O2 to build brand love by taking a different approach to previous campaigns, which had focused on artist promotion.

Although artist promotion was effective in driving ballot entries, it did not communicate the real reason for the gigs (supporting War Child); without taking an authentic stand on the issue, O2 was coming across as just a Music Promoter. We saw an opportunity for O2 to connect with an audience who show a preference for brands that take a stand on issues they care about in a tangible and relatable way.

The idea - 15 gigs, 15 kids - put War Child, and the kids they help, centrestage. We matched every BRITs artist to an individual child who received their help.

The campaign

We created a series of animations to tell the powerful stories of these 15 real children affected by war, helping audiences to understand the cause and where their donations were going.

Each child’s story was told through an integrated campaign that reached audiences across social & digital channels and continued to be told at the gig venues. The stories were told before, during and after the gig, creating a platform to tell each child’s story which will be the driver that motivates people to donate and create change.

Animation was chosen as the creative vehicle that is emotive and inspiring but also gives creative license to dial up the story, connect lots of places around the world and not use the children as puppets. The creative was used on:

● O2’s social channels.

● artists’ own accounts (shared organically).

● played on screen at the start of each gig.

● posters at each venue.

The results

By placing War Child and the children they support at the heart of the campaign, we drove brand love and increased donations. In addition, there was a measured uplift in both awareness of the O2 and War Child partnership and association between O2 and War Child BRITs week.

It was the most successful War Child BRITs week ever with organic shares from: The 1975, Jess Glynne, Enter Shikari, Anne Marie, Tom O’Dell, Idles, Mable, You Me At Six, Bring me the Horizon, Tom Walker and Frank Turner. Without any paid social media behind the posts, the content earned 797,528 views and 15% increase in donations!

This year, donations totalled more than £500,000 for War Child!

This campaign was commended in The Drum Content Awards 2019. If you think you can do better, register your interest in next year's awards.