Creator / originator

Emma Howard (Senior Copywriter), James Wright (Senior Art Director) and the fundraising team at The Brain Tumour Charity.

Background

Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40, reducing life expectancy by 27 years on average. Treatment options remain extremely limited and often have little impact on survival rates. 

Despite this, research into brain tumours remains woefully underfunded, with only 3 per cent of UK cancer funding going towards it. 

It the reason The Brain Tumour Charity are working hard to make progress.

20 years ago, The Brain Tumour Charity funded groundbreaking research led by Dr David Jones. It was his team that uncovered the role that the BRAF gene (B-Raf proto-oncogenegenetic mutation) plays in the growth of some childhood brain tumours. This discovery would lead to new treatments being developed – only one of which is now available on the National Health Service (NHS).

But this breakthrough was two decades in the making. And with 130 different types of brain tumour affecting both children and adults, there’s an urgent need to find more treatments – and faster. 

Summary / objectives

I’m James and my dad died from a brain tumour when I was very young. So when The Brain Tumour Charity came to us with a big, horrible stat to smash up and make better, we jumped at the chance.

We were asked to help come up with a Christmas campaign which included delivering everything from a proposition workshop, mail pack, landing pages and social posts – all on a very tight schedule.

We started with an inspiration session, gathering together a team of people from The Brain Tumour Charity, along with members of the brain tumour community to share their own lived experience and ideas. 

From there, we wrote the brief, created a brand new proposition and rolled out a mail pack, landing pages, email journey and lots and lots of social posts. The result was an emotive and effective appeal that surpassed those that had been run previously.

Special characteristics

The stats spoke for themselves. 20 years since the last big, life-changing breakthrough. It’s just not good enough. 

We thought about the huge community of people living with a brain tumour and the limited treatment options on offer. We thought about that wait – and how impossible that must feel for so many children and adults of all ages. 

This led us to the proposition about waiting for Christmas. Waiting for something special. Waiting for a life-changing breakthrough. And the reality, that most people simply can’t wait. In fact, there’s no time to lose.

Our proposition became ‘We can’t wait 20 more Christmases for the next breakthrough’. From this, we were able to launch into the idea of a child waiting for Christmas, supported by an inspiring case study from a child who now has the treatment he needs to survive and thrive.

It helped us develop the ask with a real, tangible urgency – because we can’t wait for the next breakthrough, and we can’t wait for donations. 

Results

This Christmas appeal raised 8.2 per cent more than the previous year’s appeal, with a response rate of 3.2 per cent and average gift of £76. The campaign achieved a return on investment (ROI) of 7.4.

Merits

As part of their appeal, The Brain Tumour Charity took part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge, the UK’s biggest collaborative fundraising campaign. The online campaign uses a pledge model of match funding, allowing supporters to have their donations doubled for a limited time with match funds provided by generous philanthropists, corporates and the Big Give’s champion partners.

The matched funding element created an additional incentive for supporters to donate to this campaign, by offering a sense of amplified impact. Donors were able to make twice the impact with their donation, compared to other times of the year. As the Christmas Challenge is open only for one week, this also helped to create a real sense of urgency around the ask.

Influence / impact

After working with the same creative proposition for four years prior, ‘We Can’t Wait’ offered a fresh creative angle that can be built upon and developed for future campaigns. The flexible proposition could work consistently across channels and audiences with simple, memorable and emotionally resonant messaging. 

Arthur’s story demonstrated the real-world impact of research funded years earlier, showing supporters that breakthroughs are possible, but also reinforcing the devastating reality that progress still takes too long for many families.

Final notes

More imagery can be found here: jameswrightportfolio.co.uk/the-brain-tumour-charity

IMAGES: ©The Brain Tumour Charity and James Wright