UK Charities to Embrace Comparative Advertising – A Welcome Change to the Rules?

7 Responses

1. N Azam

   March 22nd, 2010 at 9:04 pm

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   Interesting piece. Like you, Karen, I’m a bit unnerved about the fact that charities may be competing with each other in a direct way. It seems a bit undignified.

2. Nathan Harrington

   March 23rd, 2010 at 2:14 pm

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   Seems a bit unsavoury – how does anyone define which charities are worthy causes and which aren’t? Surely it’s personal choice.

   A year from now, will we start seeing charities in court over defamtory ad content? Risk here that charities start using donations to fight legal cases.

   Then again, they operate in a competitive world, like the rest of us…

3. Rob Barham

   March 24th, 2010 at 8:47 am

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   Sounds strange at first but as a donor wouldn’t you want to know that your money is being used efficiently and getting to where it’s needed most ?

4. N Azam

   March 25th, 2010 at 12:37 pm

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   Nathan – I can see where you’re coming from, and personally have the same opinion.

   Rob – “Sounds strange at first but as a donor wouldn’t you want to know that your money is being used efficiently and getting to where it’s needed most ?”

   Yeah, it’s important they are efficient. So I personally take an interest in what proportion of income a charity is spending on admin, salaries etc. v. how much is spent on their actual cause.

   However, not sure if I’d want e.g. one animal charity competing against another in a direct way.

5. Mike @ Oyster Media

   March 26th, 2010 at 4:27 pm

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   It costs a lot to recruit donors to a charity and it is the big charities that invest the most into fundraising budgets. I am aware of charities spending 20% of their income on acquiring new donors and developing existing donors.

   The potential minefield is how charities account for their spend. There are many different ways to account for charity expenditure – when does spend on ‘public awareness’ end and ‘fundraising’ begin? Much of the British public already think that charity employees work for free and that every penny goes to the cause.

   It would be an own-goal for a big charity to advertise their fundraising efficiency. You won’t hear many charities (other than Comic Relief and Sport Relief) saying that “every penny goes to the cause”… it doesn’t happen. My verdict is that the major charities will keep quiet and not use this new clause.

6. Pam Sagoo

   March 26th, 2010 at 7:12 pm

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   Interesting thoughts there Mike @ OysterMedia. You say “when does spend on ‘public awareness’ end and ‘fundraising’ begin?” – there’s certainly seems to be a very fine line between them nowadays!

   Whether or not some charities start using comparative ads remains to be seen, but I’d definitely advise on ‘watching this space’!

7. John Pixium

   July 15th, 2010 at 1:51 pm

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   This is really a nice blog. I like the way affiliate marketing works.