Category: drtv

Medicins Sans Frontieres

Friday, September 4th, 2009

I’ve been thinking about this video ad from Medicins Sans Frontieres, which has stirred up quite a bit of controversy on the Chronicle’s Give & Take blog and elsewhere. Here are my observations. First, a piece of advertising needs to be assessed against its objectives. If the ...  Read more

Best Fundraising Video Contest

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Given that The Agitator often encourages fundraisers to experiment with online video, we’re pleased to help bring your attention to this fundraising video competition. It’s sponsored by Resource Alliance, who stages the International Fundraising Congress (IFC). Traditionally the ...  Read more

3 Minutes To Tell Your Story Online

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Illustrating the point we made yesterday about the impact of increased broadband (i.e., high speed) internet access, comScore has released the latest monthly figures (April ‘09) re online video viewing. Key points: An impressive 79% of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online ...  Read more

Biggest Online Fundraising Night In History

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

October 29th should be the biggest online fundraising night in history … at least in political history.As reported here, Barack Obama has bought thirty-minute program blocks at 8pm that night on CBS and NBC, and is in negotiations with ABC and Fox to make it a true ...  Read more

AGITATOR WEEKEND: Online Fundraising Bonus

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

The Agitator’s Week in Review. This was a week that began and ended with drama and suspense. In Washington, D.C. “The Bailout” which went down in flames on Monday rose from the ashes on Friday amidst a torrent of fear and loathing on Main Street. In between, in St. Louis, millions glued ...  Read more

Direct response TV lessons

Monday, September 29th, 2008

Historically, the most consistently successful nonprofit fundraisers using DRTV have been the child sponsor agencies — Save the Children, Worldvision, Christian Children’s Fund, etc.* Their campaigns effectively married strong emotional visuals and case statements with the sound ROI ...  Read more

Still Pondering Online Video?

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Here’s some data re online video used by BrightRoll, the internet’s biggest online advertising network. 1. Video is Bigger Than Search: 12 billion videos are watched per month vs. 10.5 billion searches conducted. 2. Video Consumption is Quickly Moving Online: 19% of total video ...  Read more

Thank You For Stealing

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

  The maxim very successful fundraisers live by was set forth by George Bernard Shaw 80 years ago: "The mediocre borrow, genius steals." In short, when you see a winning concept, campaign, technique, whatever, just steal it. Adapt it. Run with it. Which brings me to today’s ...  Read more

If You’re Going To Use TV Spots …

Monday, October 15th, 2007

If you're going to the expense of producing and placing TV spots, make sure they hit your audience right between the eyes … as in these spots from Save Darfur, and this one from Families USA. TV is first and foremost a vehicle for tapping emotions. Fail to do that, and your message or ...  Read more

TV Or Internet Video?

Saturday, September 30th, 2006

How you like your “moving pictures” served up is mostly a matter of generation. For example, according to Forrester Research, GenXers (age 13-26) spend 12.2 hours a week on the internet and 10.6 hours watching TV. At the other end of the spectrum, Seniors (age 62+) spend 3.8 hours a ...  Read more