Faced with increasing costs and overmailed lists, the World Wildlife Fund in Canada has returned to direct response television for the second time in a year to communicate its twin messages of conservation and fundraising.
Ana White, wwf’s membership director, says the organization wanted to take advantage of drtv’s ability to tell a longer story.
The new program is due out across Canada in mid-March, says White.
She says the show, shot at one hour but edited down to 30 minutes where time and markets dictate, will feature six stories about species at risk as well as a number of 30-sec. cameo appearances by the likes of comic actress Betty White, well known for her conservation work.
The show will be hosted by two other celebrities, says Ana White, although, at this stage, she could not confirm names.
White admits the move to tv was an expensive gamble for the wwf in Canada, costing the group $200,000 to produce the first show and somewhat more than that to produce the second. Media costs are extra.
Still, the gamble appears to have paid off. Recent polling shows wwf awareness is up 14%, says White.
White and the program’s producer, Graham Knope, president and founder of Eagle-Com in Thornhill, Ont., stress that the shows are not infomercials because they have an educational element.
However, the shows – like their infomercial distant cousins – are paid programming. White says the wwf buys time on local or regional outlets at the going rate, despite being a charity.
As well, says White, pledge breaks – during which viewers are asked to join the wwf for $18 a month – are an integral part of the broadcast.
It’s from these monthly donors, she explains, that the wwf gets the steady supply of funds it needs to carry out its work.
A show that went to air in April 1995 and is still being broadcast raises $1 million a year from monthly supporters, says White.
White says the show presents viewers with a strong offer and an engaging story. Viewers who sign on get a wwf tote bag, a monthly newsletter and other value-added sweeteners to make them feel special, she says.
Monthly donors tend to be a little younger than the average donor, she says, and because of that they tend also to be a little less affluent. Overall, however, wwf donors are affluent and educated, says White.
Eagle-Com’s Knope says that the second show will feature a five- to six-minute segment on wolves in Western Canada, whose migratory corridor between Yellowstone National Park in the u.s. and the Yukon is being threatened by human encroachment.
Other segments include features on how polar bears in Churchill, Man. and Coral Harbour, n.w.t. are being poisoned by airborne pollution; how peregrine falcons, absent from southern Ontario for 40 years, have been successfully reintroduced among downtown Toronto’s skyscrapers; and how office tower owners are being persuaded to turn off their lights to prevent birds from flying into windows and killing themselves.
Despite its success with tv, White says the wwf hasn’t given up on direct mail. It has mailings of about 300,000 names a year, a continuation of its old prospecting program.
The wwf has 190,000 names in its database, she says, and creates its mail drops by using that, rented lists and trading names.
As for the future, White says the wwf in Canada is thinking about using direct response radio as well as tv, although no firm date has been set.
The wwf in Canada has 55,000 active members and is headquartered in Toronto. It raises more than $10 million annually.
