When disaster strikes, the race is on for charities to reach those in need. Rapid Action from Concern Worldwide and Quantcast had a hand in raising €85,000 and helping over 400 Families after tragedy hit the Philippines.

Organisations in the charity sector face a unique challenge: When disaster strikes, their response has to be as fast as humanly possible to provide the greatest help to those in need.

Highlights

  • When disaster struck the Philippines in November 2013, global charity Concern Worldwide needed to raise funds quickly to get relief to those in need. The immediacy of the online environment made display advertising an attractive channel for reaching potential donors.
  • New creative was quickly deployed across Quantcast’s live campaigns to raise consumers’ awareness of the disaster and urge them to donate.
  • Quantcast’s custom audience profile and real-time bidding rapidly adapted to the shifting profile of new donors, enabling Concern Worldwide to more quickly and effectively reach similar online consumers across the Web.
  • A 2779% peak return on ad spend (ROAS) was achieved (the average ROAS was 606%).
  • A total of €85,000 was raised at a cost per acquisition (CPA) 83% lower than target. The funds raised provided relief to over 400 families.

Background

On November 8, 2013, a powerful typhoon swept across the Philippines, cutting a path of destruction through several islands and leaving cities in ruins and thousands of lives lost.

International charity Concern Worldwide works regularly in partnership with communities, combining its expertise with local knowledge and resources to provide practical, intelligent solutions that save lives and build livelihoods.

When news of the largest storm ever to hit land broke, the organisation understood it would have to act quickly to raise the donations that would enable it to get help to those in need.

Using What You Know and Whom You Know

Concern Worldwide runs display advertising through Quantcast all year round. This means that Quantcast continually measures Concern Worldwide’s online audience and has built a custom model of the typical donor.

As soon as Concern Worldwide heard that a typhoon was devastating the Philippines, it created new display ads designed to increase awareness and drive new donations. Quantcast immediately implemented the new creative across the charity’s live campaigns.

Quantcast’s Predictive Intelligence began to observe a difference in the online behaviour of donors as awareness of the disaster increased. Combining its Beyond Big data set and Predictive Intelligence, Quantcast then matched the custom audience profile for the Concern Worldwide donor against its real-time view of the Web to find and reach the highest-value matches through targeted advertising.

Quantcast’s map of Web activity was used to identify ideal customers who are typically out of reach to other vendors. As new donors came to the website to make donations, Quantcast’s model was able to quickly adapt to the changes in Concern Worldwide’s customer audience profile, and to account for the different demographic profile of the new donor. Quantcast’s real-time bidding did the rest, accurately bidding to ensure maximum ROAS.

The Results

Quantcast identified people with the most data points in common with Concern Worldwide’s new donors, and drove over 275 donations per week at the height of the crisis, compared to an industry average of eight. and at one-sixth the cost. By the end of the campaign, Quantcast had helped its client to:

  • Achieve a 2779% peak ROAS, and an average ROAS of 606%
  • Generate a total of €85,000, bringing help to 400 fishing families
  • Cut the target CPA by 83%

Adrian O’Flynn, digital marketing manager at Concern Worldwide, said, “Quantcast exceeded expectations by delivering a CPA 83 percent below goal. During a disaster relief campaign, Quantcast’s technology quickly adapted to a changing donor profile, delivering a significant boost in conversions.”

Phil Macauley, managing director Europe at Quantcast, said, “It’s very exciting to put Quantcast Advertise to work for a great cause and collaborate with a technically savvy organisation like Concern Worldwide. Seeing our technology create such a significant impact is incredibly rewarding.”