Spotlight on: Festive Giving 2022
Festive preparations are now well underway. In the second episode of our new event series, Spotlight, we explore how seismic societal shifts and pressures will impact giving this Christmas.
Hosted by GOOD’s Planner, Grace Anthony, and moderated by Nilesha Chauvet, Managing Director, the event featured trends to look out for in festive giving and suggestions on story narratives to cut through, under the overarching theme of Resilience and Fantasy.
Here are three key takeaways for those who couldn’t join us:
- Be aware & prepared for compassion fatigue
The cacophony of crises over the past few years has led to compassion fatigue. This makes Christmas fundraising particularly difficult. 2022 will be no different. We’ll be seeing the full impact of the cost-of-living crisis by September. 29% of people will see less money coming in, and 52% of people seeing an increase in bills.
However, there is still intention to give. For example, three-quarters of the public are planning to give (Enthuse Donor Pulse, 2022). So, it’s vital to hone the right message (with the right tone) and to direct it appropriately and creatively, to ensure your marketing cuts through to connect and resonate with your audience.
- Christmas is having an identity crisis
To cut through the noise and have impact, we need to change the stories we tell around Christmas. We’ll see this with commercial brands as traditional narratives of raucous parties, piles of gifts and tables piled with festive food not only fall flat but feel inappropriate when so many are struggling to make ends meet. In the new paradigm, Christmas is having an identity crisis, and organisations need to decide how to respond empathetically.
Charities would do well to recognise the change in expectations from consumers within their marketing and communications. 39% of Britons say the pandemic has changed their expectations of how brands should communicate with them (Freshworks 2022).
Whilst the timeless principles of festive storytelling remain, it’s now important to get other elements right: inclusivity and representation, integration, emotion, and empathy.
- Foresight & Planning
On a positive note, we haven’t had the luxury of foresight in previous years, but this year we do. We’re able to look ahead and plan better with everything we’ve learnt from the pandemic. We also know there will be a large media spend around the World Cup, taking place around Christmas in 2022, so charities need to be prepared to go the extra mile to stand out from the crowd.
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With millions raised for charities from RNIB to Cats Protection, at GOOD we deliver high-impact Christmas campaigns for a multitude of clients. Get in touch with us at hello@goodagency.co.uk for more information.
Posted by Katie Daley
