Retelling a tragic story through song

It costs the Scottish SPCA £23 million a year to continue protecting the welfare of all Scottish animals.

In 2023, they saw a 25% increase in animal arrivals, 10% increase in helpline calls and 8% increase in animal surrender enquiries. And as needs increased and costs continue to rise, they needed a winter DRTV campaign to capture essential donations at Christmas – a time when people were tightening their belts and charity ads are ten-a- penny.

We had to tug at animal-lovers’ heart strings, and there’s nothing more heartbreaking than a real-life story.

In January 2024, 24 puppies were found under a lorry at Cairnryan Ferry Port. Scottish SPCA rescued them all from the low-welfare puppy trafficking trade, delivering life-saving treatment and finding their forever loving homes.

With an unofficial objective of triggering goosebumps, we reworked the tune of Ten Green Bottles to retell the story – made extra haunting when sung by a young child.

Through a mix of existing rescue footage and an emotional reconstruction, the film balanced the negative situations that the Scottish SPCA encounter daily with a positive outcome, made possible entirely through donations.

Melancholy radio used the TV VO for consistency alongside a dynamic digital campaign that targeted by region, temperature and time of day. Closer to Christmas, we also ran an additional strand of editorial trials with Bauer with Christmas food vouchers, capitalising on gifting opportunities.

With puppy-fied static and video assets, the campaign was underpinned with a responsive donation strand for awareness and extended through digital display. YouTube placements used Google Grant learnings to extend the video asset to the right audiences and an accompanying direct mail campaign reached out to the charity’s past and present members for a further immediate donation push.

The animal loving community were engaged and wanted to know more about what happened to the puppies after the rescue. Prosecution of the lorry driver and adorable updates from the puppies’ new families allowed us to extend the campaign into 2024, updating the radio and social assets with extra positivity – because everyone loves a happy ending.

When it came to the numbers, segmentation allowed us to personalise asks to great effect. We almost doubled our target of recruiting new members, while average donation value for new member sign-ups increased by 10%. Between new memberships and one-off donations, we project that the campaign has generated a staggering £1.14 million, more than 40% above target.
We hope that this is quickly put to work in the ongoing fight against trafficking.