Your organisation has a fundamental line of work – the thing you do that makes you who you are. Whether you’re an IT service contractor, a construction firm or a public sector provider, you have a core service in which you invest the vast majority of your time, manpower and resources. Conventional wisdom says the more you invest in what you do best, the better you perform and the more you grow. But sadly, in a world where you’re competing for people’s attention with low-cost algorithm-driven entertainment available at the touch of a button, being good at what you do will only get you so far.
That was brought into sharp focus for us here at MIH Group when we worked with Acacia Family Support, a Birmingham-based charity supporting families facing maternal depression and anxiety. Such is the importance of Acacia’s work, some mums have said they may have taken their own lives without the charity’s expert counselling and therapy. However, earlier this year, it faced major funding challenges at a time of huge demand. Without urgent action to raise funds and, crucially, the charity’s profile, there was a danger some mums in crisis would be left without crucial support.
Acacia’s day-to-day work is inspiring and brilliant; its staff and volunteers give everything to the cause and service users report life-changing results. When they brought MIH on board, there was nothing more Acacia could do in its day-to-day work to achieve growth and replace its lost funding. The solution turned out to be something different altogether – investing in quality strategic content creation.
Calling on our team of strategic storytelling and media production experts, we delivered a series of compelling videos built around testimony of mums Acacia had helped. Optimised for social media, the clips anchored a Mother’s Day campaign that would deliver tangible results for our client. From the stories captured during filming, we put together a press package that attracted major coverage. It was the kind of viral coverage you can’t buy – you can only earn it through strategically driven content creation and effective engagement.
Our campaign took the lead slot on ITV Central News, a feature on BBC Midlands Today, newspaper and magazine coverage, invitations to appear on one England’s biggest faith radio shows – the list went on. It was similarly successful on social media: on Instagram alone, there was a 3,500% increase in the number of accounts our content reached, with interactions up 5,000% and link clicks to donation pages rising by 800%. During the six days of our campaign, donations shot up by 233%.
The campaign received cross-sector recognition after being shortlisted for a prestigious PRCA Dare award and two gongs the Emmas. Wish us luck – we find out if we’ve won on 2 July during a glittering ceremony at London’s Cathedral View venue.
Acacia was smart enough to know that investing now in quality content creation had the potential to deliver benefits long into the future. Yes – our client could quantify the immediate impact of our campaign via donation numbers, tangible exposure and social metrics. But the biggest value we delivered was a platform for long-term growth, with Acacia’s name on the map, strategically positioned as an expert in its field. On top of that, the charity can use the hours of footage we captured to fuel its social channels for some time. And it all started with a desire to think outside the box by recognising the importance of quality content.
To find out more about our work with Acacia and other examples of work we’ve delivered, visit www.mihgroup.co.uk/case-studies.
MIH Group is a strategic communications and PR consultancy based in Burton-upon-Trent in the heart of the Midlands. The company offers services including campaign management | crisis and media handing | videography and photography | training and development | public affairs and stakeholder management | healthcare sector consultancy
