Researching gaming and streaming for Mind
Can we use gaming and streaming to grow fundraising and help reach our strategic audiences?
We are at the early stages of this research project for Mind but it is proving really interesting. Working with Emily Hayes from Semiotics for Brands, we have gone from curious but confused to engaged and excited in a very short space of time.
It is the first time we have looked into how charities are using gaming and streaming. I’ve been having fascinating conversations with other charities who are experimenting and successfully fundraising in this space. Here are a few of the headlines I have learnt so far:
- The gaming and streaming industry is worth more than the film, TV and music industries combined. I’ll leave that to sink in for a bit.
- The average age of people gaming is 31. The gender split is pretty even. We are not talking about teenage boys isolated in their bedrooms.
- Many charity audiences are already on the platforms. You can go to where they are rather than investing in acquisition promotions to get them to come to you.
Basic fundraising 101 works
A clear emerging theme is that successful engagement and fundraising using gaming and streaming strongly aligns with fundraising on other channels and with other audiences. There is nothing special or mysterious about using these channels to raise money and talk about your cause. The principles of fundraising work.
If you want people to fundraise while gaming then you need to provide them with guidelines and branded assets which they can share with family and friends to support their fundraising.
If you run a mass participation event like a timed stream or a virtual run, then you need to use the same approaches to attracting supporters and stewarding them.
If you want to work with an existing streamer who has a connection to your cause then influencer marketing and major donor stewardship principles apply.
Getting started in gaming and streaming
My 16-year-old son, Gus, earned his first Red Pencil freelance fee by writing 2 pages on the difference between gaming and streaming with links to the content I should view. It was jolly useful.
In the absence of a Gus, here are a couple of links that helped take me from curious and confused to excited and engaged.
Charity Digital podcast on gaming and streaming
Giant Digital event on gaming and streaming
If you’d like to stay in touch or have ideas and insights to share on this topic then I would love to hear from you. Please reach out and get in touch.
Rebranding Lia’s Wings to celebrate the life of a special young girl
This rebrand was unusual.
It was driven by the tragic death of a very special young girl. Emilia, or Lia as she preferred to be called, is the daughter of two trustees at Lucy Air Ambulance for Children who died suddenly last September. She was five.
Her parents, Patrick and Melissa Schoennagel, wanted to channel their love for their daughter into something positive. To build a lasting legacy in her name. They wanted to do this for the charity to which their family and Lia were committed. They have pledged to transform this small charity’s future. To fly more babies and children needing specialist hospital care in Lia’s name, and grow the support offered to families in the weeks, months and years that follow a hospital air transfer.
The rebrand brief
When Helen Holden of Make Create and I were commissioned to take on this special project, the trustees already had a name in mind, Lia’s Wings.
Our brief was to develop a new verbal and visual identity to celebrate Lia’s life and support the ambitions of this small charity. We needed to do this by understanding what the charity means to people who had been close to and benefited from the previous 12 years’ work of Lucy Air Ambulance for Children. “My son survived because of the medical care he received. We thrived as a family because of the team at Lucy,” said Alex, one of the mums we spoke to. We wrote her words into the new purpose statement.
The values break through
As always, Helen and I started with the values. We had an idea. Lia’s name is in several words. Could we put Lia into the very heart of the charity’s values? In a creative workshop with the staff team, we realised the answer to this was, ‘yes’. Valiant, reliable, and brilliant are the values from which we built the brand.
From the values and with a clear purpose set out, Helen developed a new visual identity. The new logo features a motif to represent the wings of the planes and the flights that Lia’s legacy will enable. It’s the turning of the pages to Lia’s Wings’ future. There are three sections to the motif representing the three values.
The colours also reflect Lia. The main colour palette includes her favourite colour, blue, with purple and yellow complementing and enhancing the range of colours.
When we asked people how it made them feel, they said:
“I love the new name. What a great legacy for Lia. I would absolutely have wanted to do the same if we had been in that position.” Debbie, Jackson’s mum
“It’s such a versatile motif – it could be a wing, a butterfly, an opening book, and the beginning of a story. It gives this charity the space to grow.” Clare, Advanced Neonatal Nurse
Their ambitions for growing
The new brand launches on Monday 24 April and the Schoennagel family are aiming to more than double the annual turnover of this c. £300,000 charity in Lia’s name. The growth in income will allow Lia’s Wings to:
- Fund more life-changing air transfers,
- Expand the family care services,
- Provide specialist training for more nurses and doctors to care for babies and children during air transfers, and
- Develop their partnership with the NHS.
Read the full story and see the new brand in context visit www.lias-wings.org.uk and get in touch if you want to talk about your charity branding.
Lia’s Wings brand launch booklet
Sample of Lia’s Wings brand merchandise
The new brand reveal next to one of the aeroplanes used to transfer children and babies to another hospital.