Two not-for-profit campaigns have caught my attention this week and I wanted to take a minute to highlight what makes them so great.

WSPA’s “Dollars for Collars”

The idea
Donate to support action against dog cruelty in targeted countries.

The execution
Simple but stunning imagery with a clear call to action:
“Love dogs? Help save one. Buy a collar”.

Why it works
There are some great concepts at work to pull this together. For a start, the entry-level donation is brilliant. $10 per collar, buy as few or as many as you like. I am a strong advocate of not setting your entry level too high, as it can be off-putting. By allowing people to buy multiple collars, they can very simply tweak their donation and will probably be more likely to give $20 than $15 if you let them decide on their own.

Then there is the imagery…seriously. The eyes have it.

Instant gratification
When delivering a campaign to rally support or donations, you are selling a “feel-good” factor. There’s no tangible element that people are receiving for their time or money, so you want to find another way to give them instant satisfaction and pride for what they have done.

The WSPA campaign uses a visualisation of the collar to do this. When purchasing your collar, you can add your name, colour, suburb and photo to the collar at the bottom. This gives you an instant confirmation that you have made a contribution.

The “brag-factor”
I often talk about this when creating campaign social media integration – how easy are you making it for people to talk about you? For something to be passed along online, the most important thing to remember is that if someone shares your marketing message, it’s because it says something about them, not about you!

It would be lovely if people went around passing on our copy, but unless you’re targeting marketing nerds, chances are that is never going to happen!

The pre-populated sharing options after making a donation allows for a simple and effective message to the users networks to proudly display their action and encourage others to join them. Feel good factor x 10!

The follow up

A lovely email, consistent with the web site imagery that allows me to go back and see my collar and sign up to their social media channels if I hadn’t already done so. Perfect.

PetRescue and Pedigree Adoption Drive’s “Dog-A-Like”

Facial recognition fun!

The idea
A fun user-experience that encourages pet adoption.

The execution
A Facebook/iPhone/Android application that finds your “perfect match” based on facial recognition.

Why it works
It’s funny, it’s cute, it’s got a huge potential to spread like wildfire. The matches are real dogs, so it pulls at the heartstrings. I would love to adopt the cutie pie that I was matched with, but I can’t. If I hadn’t already donated to PetRescue about a week ago, I probably would of in lieu of not being able to home a pup. Either way, I have shared it with my dog-loving networks and spread the word.

Instant gratification
The application is fun to play with. It’s highly personalised, providing easy access to all of your iPhone or Facebook photos. The graphics are ADORABLE and then you get matched with a pooch.

The “brag-factor”
This app was just made for sharing! If you can get past comparing your face to a dog, it’s a bit of fun and the chances of you posting it to either your Facebook or Twitter feed are pretty high.

Follow up

One drawback I will say for this campaign is that when using the iPhone application, to donate or adopt, you are sent to web sites that aren’t optimised for the medium. Had this been a clean mobile-optimised site that made it really easy for me to donate, this would have taken it that one step further.

What’s the big idea?

Before you lament that your campaign doesn’t have adorable puppies to hang its hat on, I want to point out that what makes these campaigns great is the execution of their idea.

When planning for online campaigns, it’s very easy to get weighed down by the idea of the technology behind it. It’s not enough to say “I want a Facebook Page” and hope that people will flock to you. The creativity behind the idea is what will drive buzz and promotion of the medium will get you seen.

I have chosen these two because they show the same idea (dog welfare), portrayed very differently to suit their cause.

So next time you’re planning an online campaign, before calling in the tech-kids to give you a price on something, involve them in a meeting and start talking creative.

Your next big idea could be the difference between something making a splash or disappearing into the advertising clutter.