Raising funds to help local causes with rising costs.

How do you ask people to part with their cash to help others during a cost-of-living crisis? Our insight showed that people are more likely to engage with and support causes in their local area. If we could highlight a cause from each region of the UK, we’d be able to make the content more relevant to area audiences and engage attention using regional comms.

We worked with Aviva and our partners to identify potential causes, and developed a two-phase approach. Firstly, targeted outreach would recruit eligible projects that met the fund’s criteria. Secondly, we’d raise awareness among the general public. Their donations would drive the campaign’s success, with Aviva doubling donations, up to £250 per person.

Representing a cross-section of regional projects in our campaign was key – from empowering older people with digital literacy skills to supporting people at risk of homelessness. We also needed to sensitively drive donations, so our creative reflected ‘community and togetherness’. Emotive imagery and language that focused on the ripple effect of individual donations were used to engage hearts and minds.

A mix of owned, earned and paid channels were selected, including regional print, social, digital display, email, SEO and PR. Micro and mid-tier influencers were tasked with visiting a community cause that meant something to them personally, and we trialled advertising on a community app.

We also created an employee engagement plan that included an employee toolkit and comms for internal channels. Aviva employees could donate a voucher they were given to support a financial wellbeing project of their choice and Aviva would double it.

The outreach campaign achieved 725 Cost of Living Boost applications, and 414 of these were approved and went live on Crowdfunder. Employee engagement reached new heights for the Aviva Community Fund, and an amazing £3.3m was raised across 276 Cost of Living Boost projects, with Aviva’s full fund successfully distributed within its timeframe to give some incredible causes a much-needed boost.