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Animal Charity Takes A Dive Into DRTV
Jan. 03, 2003
By: Scott Hovanyetz
Senior
Reporter
scotth@dmnews.com | | |
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After seeing declining returns in its direct mail
fundraising, the World Society for the Protection of Animals plans a long-format
DRTV campaign in the United States to help the international organization bolster
its American membership.
Hosted by actor Tom Skerritt, the 30-minute
"docu-mercial" details WSPA efforts to rescue animals from abusive conditions
and man-made and natural disasters. Broken into three segments, the show aims
to deliver an educational message as well as a call to action to become a WSPA
member for a monthly donation of $8.25.
As an incentive, those who register
for membership receive a teddy bear and a biannual newsletter.
The charity
is new to long-format DRTV, relying until now on direct mail to acquire new members
and raise donations. But direct mail results are slumping amid competition from
other charities and donor fatigue, said Laura Salter, WSPA's USA director.
"It's been successful for the children's charities in the past,"
Salter said of DRTV. "We'd like to take our chances and see how well we do."
In addition to soliciting donations, the program shows the suffering of animals
in war-torn regions such as the Balkans and urges viewers to make more animal-conscious
consumer choices.
For example, a segment on dolphin theme parks features
Richard O'Barry, a trainer who worked on the television show "Flipper"
and who now works with the WSPA in opposing dolphin captivity. The WSPA urges
consumers to avoid theme parks that use dolphins in entertainment.
"The
long format allows us to tell dramatic stories that are very powerful," said
Craig Walker, president and creative director of Walker & Company Inc., the
Los Angeles agency that produced the campaign {by hiring TVA Productions}. "We
interrupt the show with calls to action."
Throughout the show, Skerritt
acts as guide and host, tying the segments together to create a single feature
that resembles a reality-TV program.
"He's the connective tissue,"
Walker said of Skerritt. "He holds it all together."
Though
the WSPA declined to reveal the campaign's budget, Walker noted that the charity,
being a nonprofit organization, had to stay cost-conscious at every step. The
producers used existing WSPA footage to avoid having to shoot the entire show
from scratch, and depended on sympathetic friends to donate or discount services
and supplies.
For example, the music in the show was composed for free.
A segment dealing with marine mammals was shot partially on a research vessel
provided by the University of California-Los Angeles at a discount.
Media
buying, being done by Mercury Media, has not been completed, but Walker said he
expected the show to run near "sympathetic" programming on national
cable channels like Discovery, National Geographic or the Learning Channel, which
the WSPA is considering for placement.
While creating the show, producers
had to keep in mind the television industry's low tolerance for depictions of
animal cruelty, Walker said. Some of the WSPA's archive footage of animal-abuse
incidents was too graphic to suit even the cable networks.
"There's
a limit to what the typical TV station will allow you to show when it comes to
animals," Walker said.
How long the campaign runs depends on how
the show tests, and how much in donations it brings to the WSPA. The charity has
little experience to make guesses on how long that might be, Salter said.
But if successful, the campaign could expand to the WSPA's international
territories, including Canada and Great Britain.
"The TV program
is high risk," Salter said. "We're hoping for the best. We have a good
product to deliver."
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