Best corporate partnership

When agency Brands2Life was tasked with raising awareness and driving traffic to the website of Moonpig in the run up to Valentine’s Day, it recognised that any campaign had to reflect the brand’s positioning of heart over humour, generate online coverage and increase levels of engagement with the online card retailer’s owned channels.

Moonpig, which allows customers to personalise cards online, has a broad female audience. Research revealed that 63 per cent of its customers believe brands have a responsibility to give back, which could be at odds with Valentine’s Day, which can be viewed as too cheesy and commercial.

The solution was a socially driven campaign, described by the judges as ‘brilliant’, that focused on Moonpig’s main product line – cards – and married it with the most philanthropic of cards – the organ donor card. The theme was topical. With 6,400 people on the transplant waiting list in the UK, the Government has announced plans, provisionally scheduled for 2020, that everybody will be considered an organ donor unless they expressly opt out.

Brands2Life’s solution for Moonpig was to create a limited edition range of six Valentine’s Day cards that included a cut-out organ donor card. Each card, which came in a concertina format, featured a slogan on the front, such as I know that my heart will go on… especially as I’m on the NHS Organ Donor Register. Inside was a personalised message, starting This Valentine’s, I’ve decided to get organ-ised. Yes, I’ve decided to be an organ donor… If anything happens to me, just remember my best bits are up for grabs by whoever needs them. The cards were free.

Discussions with NHS Blood and Transplant, with whom Moonpig partnered, revealed that the cards should encourage more people to enrol onto the Organ Donor Register but also ignite a conversation between loved ones sharing donation wishes. Until the current law changes, an organ donation does not go ahead without a family’s support – and 28 per cent of people say they would not authorise a donation if their relative had not made their wishes clear.

The cheeky tone of the cards was designed to kickstart conversations between couples. Two cards were designed by people directly affected by organ donation, including Jess Harris, 30, who is waiting for a kidney and pancreas transplant, while a third was designed by former JLS star JB Gill, whose friend’s son received a kidney transplant.

Special edits and GIFs from a video featuring real couples discussing their relationships, answering random questions such as Do you like their lungs?, were shared with traditional media, and the social channels of both Moonpig and NHS Blood and Transport. The video racked up more than 148,000 views in 48 hours, while the cards’ designers were interviewed by various media outlets, including Sky News Sunrise and LBC. The special edition cards were also shared with senior journalists and broadcasters, leading to tweets using the hashtag #CardsSaveLives.

The ten day campaign generated almost 11,700 visits to its landing page on Moonpig’s website, 300 pieces of coverage and more than 530,000 video views on Moonpig’s Facebook page. It also led to significant social media activity, including a 125,309 per cent rise in Facebook engagement, a 3,000 per cent plus rise in reach and more than 500 social media mentions, with one million impressions.

More than 600 cards were sold, and 262 people signed up to the Organ Donor Register within one week as a direct result of the campaign. NHS Blood and Transplant also saw a significant rise in sign ups. The judges were impressed by the ‘stunning outcome, creative execution and clear benefits’ of the campaign, describing it as a ‘genuinely supportive partnership’.