Sometimes the greatest value we offer clients is the ability to pivot our approach when circumstances warrant to deliver amazing results using a new and untried playbook for success. A good example of this was a media campaign we led during the 2020 holiday giving season on behalf of World Vision and its annual holiday gift catalog.

Like many charitable organizations, World Vision faced the challenge of engaging donors through media to tell their story during a period filled with distractions from COVID-19 and a contentious Presidential campaign.

For more than 25 years, WCG has supported World Vision with this campaign, based around the catalog featuring more than 100 life-changing items and handcrafted gifts that help communities around the world lift themselves out of poverty. Throughout the years, the objective of the campaign has remained the same; 2020, however, proved to be an incredibly difficult year. And yet our team rose to the challenge by thinking creatively to deliver record-breaking results.

We faced many challenges. Traditional tried-and-true tactics to engage overworked and distracted journalists proved insufficient. A key high-profile media event in New York City was cancelled. Many of the in-studio segments and interviews our team had historically relied on to build buzz leading up to Giving Tuesday were no longer options due to public health concerns. We also learned that gift guide media coverage increasingly relies on paid programs through affiliate commission platforms, further complicating the process of securing high-visibility placements.

In response to these hurdles, WCG threw out the playbook and developed a custom, versatile strategy with fresh approaches for World Vision to penetrate this crowded market in three strategic ways:

Utilizing Diverse Celebrity Influence – World Vision has partnered with celebrity ambassadors in the past, including actress Patricia Heaton, but increasing the slate of celebrity partners in 2020 with a focus on diversity allowed WCG to tap into new media outlets and audiences. World Vision saw a record number of new donors thanks to increased message visibility, and singer Wé McDonald’s handcrafted tote bag was one of the top-selling items in the gift catalog.

Focusing on Impact – Our campaign messaging was rooted in the giving season while emphasizing the real impact a donation to the World Vision Gift Catalog had amid the pandemic. Focusing on new gifts in the catalog that addressed hunger and poverty both domestically and abroad was a way to tap into the ongoing media conversation about the economic recession and families who were facing real hardships in 2020.

Taking Global to Local – At the local market level, media signaled willingness to cover small-scale events that adhered to public health guidelines. Working with World Vision, WCG developed and produced distribution events where viewers could receive critical resources like PPE, food kits or school supplies. WCG focused on the compelling stories of “local heroes,” like Sandra Ramirez, who played important roles in community-level impact. These local segments were leveraged up to national placements including CNN – proving that national news continues to follow stories at the local level even in a pandemic.

The results of this campaign were historic. With 6.3 billion impressions, more than 2,000 media placements and saturation in 17 media markets, WCG contributed to handcrafted gift revenue that nearly doubled for the organization, and a record-breaking Giving Tuesday. Take a look at the video below for an inside look into this nonprofit PR case study.

To learn more about how WCG can develop original, successful media campaigns for your brand, contact us at hello@wilksgrp.com for more information.