Building on success

In 2023 we partnered for a second time with Caritas Salford on their Advent Campaign after success with the first #beethere animation and follow-up focussed on having dreams.

We donated Doodledo time and energy to build on the success of the first #BeeThere campaign against the backdrop of increased costs of living which was impacting the charitable sector as running costs were going up and the public’s capacity to donate money was becoming even more challenging.

Not to be deterred we kept the tone positive and fun by working with some incredible children to identify why it was important to dream - and the engagement results for a focussed audience have been what WE dreamed of!

In March of 2024 Caritas invited us to work with them for the third year running - to help build on the successes seen so far and to help embed #beethere in the minds of their growing supporter base. Of course we jumped at the opportunity!

Bee’volving the campaign

For 2024 we set ourselves the task of a two pronged approach - building on the buzz by growing the network of supporters and sweetening the opportunity by being more specific on where donations go.

After many mugs of tea and an equal amount of brainstorming we landed on the idea of creating a montage of TV commercials with our amazing cast of bees. The short-form nature of adverts set us up nicely to create a “mini-ad break” in the final film but also provided us with a series of shorts to run on social channels and deliver punchy messaging. 

The other reason why TV ads work so well - is that they give us the opportunity to be super specific in communicating where donated money goes.

With plans in place our final ad break is comprised of:

A mattress ad

‍ - Caritas offer beds for the night and a donation of £25 provides a bed to someone who may have no other options. 

For this ad we chose to show a bee enjoying a good night sleep, albeit yawning when they probably should have been smiling at the camera. What can we say though - they were tired

A Christmas food ad

‍ - Caritas offer meals and for £5 you can provide a hot turkey dinner to someone hungry. 

For this ad we looked to the ever successful Christmas party food format and we see our chef bee showing off their perfectly cooked turkey before taking a bath in a gravy boat. Delicious.

Gloves - You buy one you get one free!

‍ Caritas offer clothing all year round but during the cold months it is especially important.

For this ad we took old school DRTV by the antennae and made an unskippable shouty ad for the nations favourite hand warmers. Ever wonder why they always come in pairs? Now you know!

Toiletry and Self Care

‍ - These essentials can often be overlooked but it’s a crucial Caritas offering that addresses core elements of basic human needs; like esteem.

Although £8 doesn’t sound like a lot of money, it can make someone feel like a million pounds so we leaned into the beauty ad aesthetic to amplify the feeling.

No TV ad is complete without a strong call to action so after reinforcing the need to give  we ended the films with a call-out to engage with the Caritas website and to make a donation that could change lives.

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Animation 

We had a lot of fun with this year's campaign - after the success of 2023, the animation team decided to keep pushing the technical boat out and we’ve used some pretty cool tools with our bees to get the ads looking just like we envisaged them.

Particles, cloth, compositing and moving cameras are a few of the things that were used to make the chef bee as mouth-watering as the turkey he was cooking in our food ad. 

Harsh colour compression, awkward cuts, interlacing lines and sledgehammer typography are things we’d normally run a mile from but for the ‘Buy One Get One Free’ ad it really helped deliver the brashest of DRTV sales pitches.

Hair and physics simulations along with a lovely soft focus and warm palette helped bring a bit of luxury to our self-care ad. The chunky hair and eyes on the side of our bees head created a few challenges when it came to styling, but just like in real life - the hard work paid off. 

We hope you enjoy watching the campaign as much as we did making it, once again it’s been a privilege to work alongside a charity that does so much good for our amazing city and if you’re able to - please support them by sharing the campaign or making a donation - it all goes to a good place.

Visit caritassalford.org.uk/beetherenow

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