How charities create video campaigns that truly stand out and don't cost a fortune

In last week's blog I suggested that a good way to get your awareness-raising and client-focused messages across with greater impact was to let others tell your stories for you. Contrary to popular opinion, many successful charities and public services use video considerably better than businesses to convey their messages.

Sure, there are quirky B2B campaigns like the US-scientist blending electronic products or any one of a number of 'trendy' viral awareness campaigns for cars, fashion items, mobile phones etc. But the more of these I see, the more I realise how much money and time it takes to create a truly stand-out campaign.

This is where we can learn from the not-for-profit sector.

I've seen a great video campaign this week from Sussex Safer Roads which aims to encourage more people to wear seatbelts (thanks to the Fundraising Detective for pointing it out in another very interesting post). I appreciate that this is not a business campaign but as an awareness raiser, I think there are several points we can learn. Not least because since its launch on YouTube in January the video has attracted over nine and a half million views! So, the story must be compelling to achieve this kind of cut-though and viral support.

Seatbelt campaigns are nothing new and there are hundreds of films on YouTube extolling their virtues. However, none have generated anywhere near the same level of interest. So what did the team do differently that we can emulate?

• As per last week's blog, it lets a family (albeit an apparently notional one) tell the story, rather than have some expert or spokesperson talking 'at' the viewer.
• Whilst it's clearly contrived and stylised, the story is very much set in the real-world. We are transported to a family's living room where real-world things happen and 'meet' the characters seemingly
  playing some sort of pretend driving game. OK, the actors are all a bit 'beautiful' but this is splitting hairs and I think the context of the living room and the well edited sequences simply strengthen the realism.
• They tell this story in an unfamiliar, but comfortable, and engaging context. Other road safety campaigns are usually about casualties, crashes, roads and ambulances and seek to employ greater 'shock' tactics. They aren't about families doing positive things.
• Consequently, this video turns the tradition of public safety messages on its head and will most likely achieve greater cut-through because it is trying to do something different. The message comes from a
  family doing something together in their living room. It shows them being together and caring for each other. No-one dies and the outcome is, I think more positive and less 'preachy' as a result.
• The imagery and sub-text are, in my opinion, very successful. The mother and daughter characters wrapping their arms around the chap not only to protect their family unit but doing so with their arms in the shape of a seatbelt is very clever. This one image links the family, protection, real-world context and seatbelts inextricably together without once mentioning accident statistics or showing guts and gore.
• Overall, it is a simple idea and would have been produced on a relatively low budget, proving again that original, well-targeted content increasingly wins over big-budget effects and complicated media choices.

What do you think? Obviously there are other factors which contributed to the campaign's success but I would love to hear your thoughts and any other examples you have of messages achieving real-world stand-out without costing a fortune.

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Kevin Baughen is the founder of Bottom Line Ideas and helps SME businesses and not-for-profit organisations get more bang for their marketing and communications efforts.