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SOFII’s
view
This is the copy line that every writer wishes he or she had written. If half the challenge with legacy marketing is how do you raise this delicate subject with donors, then this brilliant promotion hits every button perfectly. I’ve always believed that the fact it’s an advertisement on a beer mat is almost entirely incidental to its brilliance, though it is characteristic of Greenpeace that this is how they would choose to deploy such a fantastic idea. Without doubt, this is a fundraising classic. NB see also ‘lessons’, below.
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Name of exhibitor: SOFII homeless section.
Email: maxine@sofii.org
Name of exhibit: The Greenpeace legacy beer mat.
Date of first appearance: Early to mid 1990s.
Category/area of fundraising: Legacy marketing.
Country of origin: Australia.
Summary/objectives:
The original objectives may well be lost in time. Perhaps someone from Greenpeace Australia can get in touch with SOFII and give us some more details. But we suspect impact may have been high on the aganda.
Background:
The copy concept first appeared on a billboard outside Sydney, Australia. Initially it may just have been a one-off indulgence for such a great copy line. But somebody evidently thought it deserved more. And quite right too.
Creator/originator:
No idea. But we’d love to know, to pay her or him proper respect.
Special characteristics:
Unique, instant brilliance.
Influence/impact:
Whenever innovative fundraising is discussed, this promotion is sure to come up soon.
Test details: N/A.
Costs: N/A.
Results: N/A.
Why do you think this exhibit merits a place in SOFII?:
Because this piece should be seen and revered by fundraisers everywhere. It was made for a showcase like SOFII, even if it appeared years before SOFII existed.
Lessons learned from a legendary campaign
The impact of a great fundraising idea can be surprising. Take this comment from SOFII’s ambassador in Thailand, Hannah Perkins, who works for Greenpeace there:
‘The legacy beermat makes me proud to work for an organisation like Greenpeace. I keep a copy at my desk to remind me that bequest giving is something that I want to kick-start in Thailand...one day... ’.
How about that? Or, consider this comment, sent to SOFII by Charlie Adlum, planned giving manager at Greenpeace Australia:
‘I'll be in touch if I find out any more information but don't hold your breath - seems like it all happened before we began documenting strategy and results electronically. The chances of me finding paper files on the beer mat activity are slim to none. Although, I did hear the following from my colleague who used to do the legacy programme here:
‘It was done long before my time - and while it created lots of interest and won awards and the like it was actually a fizzler for generating bequest responses. We used the same language in a filler ad campaign that worked well for generating enquiries... as good as any
other bequest filler ad... the good thing about it was that the papers liked running it in filler space over Christmas because of all the whales talk then (Japanese whale hunt season in the Southern Ocean) and then again in the papers whenever there was a visiting whale to somewhere that was being reported in the local media.’
‘It’s so funny that many people highlight the beer mat slogan as a 'winner', I think it's more appealing to bequest/legacy fundraisers than bequest/legacy prospects!’
This is so often the way with great ideas – they may not work all that well in the format for which they were originally intended. But if this campaign has inspired a generation of legacy fundraisers then it qualifies as great in SOFII’s book, for sure.
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