Happy Birthday Willie!
Last week I was critical of an Oxfam video featuring crowdsourced video content.
Actually, I love the idea of sourcing content (of all kinds, for that matter) from donors, volunteers and especially the beneficiaries of whatever it is you do. What I didn’t like was the execution. It told no story about the need it was dedicated to. But that’s history.
In response, the folks at Farm Aid were brave enough to send me their latest video campaign, asking me how I felt about it.
Well, here it is … a fundraising appeal pegged to long time farmer advocate Willie Nelson’s 80th birthday (can you believe it?!).
Now I’m trying to be reasonably objective, so I’ll confess that I adore Willie Nelson. Had a chance to work with him on a television fundraiser for another of his causes, Habitat for Humanity. He’s a totally generous and committed spirit.
OK, I’ll give this video campaign a C+. It did hold my interest … I watched the main video as well as a few of the video tributes that were paid to Willie. And I do believe that he is so beloved that many people, especially if they were already supporters of Farm Aid, would dig in and give a little.
But I’d still submit that the case for giving should have been presented more strongly. Indeed, a casual look might leave you thinking you were being asked to contribute to Willie (and given Willie’s past brushes with the IRS, you might wonder!) rather than to Farm Aid.
To Farm Aid I would say, Willie’s the draw and scores an instant emotional connection (assuming you’ve heard of him), but he’s not really the reason to give. The video appeal would have been stronger, IMHO, if it pointed to some project or specific objective the donor would be helping Farm Aid (and Willie) accomplish as a tribute to Willie’s longstanding commitment to rural life and well-being.
Also, given that the video itself did not crystallize the ask, the direct link to PayPal to capture the gift meant there was no opportunity — no message platform — to reinforce the need or goal behind the ask. The viewer’s response depends totally on feeling warm about Willie. I believe a bit more motivation is needed.
Not knowing how this video was promoted or targeted, I’d suspect it would perform better as a special appeal to Farm Aid’s existing base of supporters than as a tool for attracting new interest.
Hey, Farm Aid … would love to hear the results.
Tom
P.S. Happy Birthday Willie!
2 responses to “Happy Birthday Willie!”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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Way to go, Farm Aid, for seeing an opportunity to get some feedback on your video and going for it! A lot of organizations probably read that original post and thought, “Boy, it would be great to get an objective critique of out video.” As Roger said, that was a brave move. I’m sure you’ll find his comments incredibly useful.
Thanks very much for your feedback, Tom! We’re always eager to learn and push ourselves to be the very best we can be.
The main goals of the campaign were to celebrate our founder, our history, our culture. It was to engage our audience, the generous artists, the farmers and partners in our work in celebrating the progress we’ve made and the work to be done. Tomorrow, 4/30, is Willie’s birthday, and we will release the actual crowd-sourced video, which is where the main invitation to give will come.
There are over 1200 messages of love and appreciation for Willie and Farm Aid on the site to date. In this, the campaign has been a success and we look forward to releasing the second half of it tomorrow!.