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WORLD RECORD HAND PRINT PAINTING - HENSHAWS SOCIETY FOR BLIND PEOPLE
Souters working with partner agency Stripe under the brand AllBigFish ObjectiveTo launch Henshaws High Five £5 million fund-raising campaign in Manchester and to raise awareness of Henshaws Society for Blind People and its services. The planning and research We wanted to find a concept which would provide strong cut through in a highly cluttered charity sector which would engage with the key stakeholders – the public, potential supporters (both donors and celebrities) and media. The initiative also had to underpin & promote the High Five creative which featured a ‘helping hand’. The Henshaws/agency team came up with the challenge of attempting to break the world record for the Largest Handprint Painting (currently held by a school in Hong Kong) by creating a 360 square metre canvas depicting the High Five logo made up of the handprints of over 3,138 local people. Implementation We enlisted the support of the Trafford Centre, Manchester’s premier shopping venue, with a guaranteed footfall of between 70-100,000 shoppers. They offered us the stage area in The Orient on a Saturday at the end of January from 10am–6pm, the hub of the centre providing food and drink throughout the day with a large seating area, huge video screen & public address system. We developed the canvas and the process by which people could ‘make their handprint’ on it. People were provided with gloves and paint was water-based so easy to wash off. Several shops from within the Trafford Centre provided prizes to incentivise participation & mark milestones passed. Every person who took part had to fill in a participation form and the attempt had to be verified by appointed officials approved by the Guinness Book of Records. A local entertainments company provided live acts during the day to maintain momentum. A number of celebrities - actors Chris Bisson & John Henshaw, Olympic swimmer, James Hickman and X-factor’s Trevor Hodgson - made personal appearances. In planning the media support we approached ‘safe hands’ David James, goalkeeper of Manchester City and Edwin van der Sar and Tim Howard (plus Ruud van Nistelrooy!) of Manchester United and Coronation Street’s Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts) & colleagues who all posed for pre-event photo opportunities with service users. We also staged a photocall on the day and subsequently at Stockport County FC to show the finished canvas. We approached Key 103, one of Manchester’s leading independent radio stations, who co-branded the event in exchange for promotional support in the week leading up to the event. Creative input The use of the High Five hand was an interesting twist for a blind charity, but captured the essence of ‘engagement’ necessary and reflected the scale of the £5 million fund-raising challenge. The use of the world record hand print concept was a creative, empowering way of getting people involved including celebrities and proved an irresistible draw for media. The Budget With most equipment, time and expertise donated and by negotiating reduced rates where possible we spent a total of £3,700 on the initiative. Results The event The exposure to shoppers with repeated messages throughout the day – the Trafford Centre confirmed 103,000 footfall - and actual engagement with a record-breaking 3150 of them - delivered excellent awareness of the charity and the fund-raising challenge. The Henshaws campaign video was played five times on the big screen in The Orient area, Trafford Centre announcements were made (all day, every hour in the morning, every 30 minutes in the afternoon). Henshaws information materials or branded balloons were given away. In spite of restrictions, Trafford Centre discourage charities from direct petitioning for money, £700 was raised. Around 700 people gave permission to be mailed after the event driving further donations. The event attracted a number of high profile celebrities. Activity also established excellent relationships with mass audience channels like the Trafford Centre, its stores, MUFC, MCFC and Stockport County. Banner specialists Cestrian have adopted Henshaws as their charity of the year. Media coverage 17 pieces of print coverage (see evaluation in detail) with 7.3 million OTS acrosss Greater Manchester with an advertising equivalent cost of c £16,500. Outstanding support from the Manchester Evg News who ran three pieces of coverage pre and post-event. A further c 275,100 people were reached online. Key 103 ran a week long pre-promote reaching a further 557,000 listeners. Henshaws website hits increased from 20-27,000 during the month. Sally Bowden, Director of Fundraising, said, “The charity was still benefiting from the initiative – six months later. It has had a direct & positive influence on our ability to establish a stronger support base with celebrities, volunteers and donors.”
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