A crowded

market calls for

a focused sell -

how Merlin and

Shelter turned a

smorgasbord

into a single

dish

Who we are

Nick Marsh

Head of Individual Giving

Imogen Ward

Director of Marketing and Communications

Andrew Bathgate

Partner

The plan for the next hour…

• Why we’re here and what we’ve done

• Our tips for doing good innovation

• Q&A

Not that Merlin

The Plumpy Nut Challenge

Shelter’s two events

Without giving too much away…

So… what are our top tips for good

innovation?

Develop the right product

and

Develop the product right

Focus

Christmas became Shelter’s area of focus

Generic ‘support homeless charity’

ask

Added “70,000 children homeless” statistic

50% increase

100% increase in propensity to support

Added “at Christmas”

30% increase

Who did Merlin want to recruit?

Introducing Alex…

• Difficult to identify differentiated target markets in international development

• Decided to take a different approach – the founders story & personality permeates the Merlin brand… • Pragmatic, no nonsense

• Wants action, not words• Seeking big solutions, not sticking plasters

Understand your market

The events market is very crowded, it’s difficult to find a gap…

…and to find a market in the gap

Use insight to

find problems to solve

What do we mean by insight?

I want my children to understand how lucky they

are

Create a pull, not just a push

Participants do the

event because they

care about the

cause

Participants get

something out of

participating as well

as supporting the

cause

Participants doing

the event solely as

they get something

out of it

How Shelter used insights

What people think we do

What people think about their home

I need to be able to

go back to ‘home

home’, its

safe, secure and

full of memories

I think my home is

more than the walls –

it is about having the

people I care about

around me

I believe my home is my launch pad to all the

other things I want to do in my life – the

foundation everything else is built on

Structure how you

create ideas

A day in the lifeAudience insights

What Christmas isOther events

Be commercial as well as creative

Competition

Buy one give oneTrial periods

Incentivising sharing

Tiered incentives

Recommendations

Rewards & penalties

White labellingRewards

Flexibility

Exclusivity

Gamification

Limited supply

Membership Choice

Freemium

Initial discounts LoyaltyBrokering

Peer to peer

Co-createCo-whittleCo-build

…but make a decision

ObservationGroupsIndividual

How do you involve supporters?

Pilot quickly, cheaply

and iteratively

Read this

(Free copies through us)

• Did it all in house

• Spoke to potential audience & people in the know

• Only focused on Twitter followers NOT existing donors

• Created buzz in build up to launch & got influencers behind it

• Was ambitious but managed expectations

• Was prepared for the weirdness of Twitter to be unleashed

How did Merlin pilot?

How are Shelter piloting?

• The pilots are designed to test the key assumptions:• Hosts will sign up and will recruit other participants who want to

participate

• There aren’t any communications or logistical barriers

• Competition and online social interaction enhance the event

• The financial assumptions are accurate

• Minimum viable products being developed

• One idea: One event every day or two to allow us to iterate as we go

• The other: Working with a corporate partner, getting them engaged at the creating stage and owning the outcome

Get buy in

Benefits for Merlin:

Culture key

Low cost. Managed in house

Pilot

Engage all of organisation – get staff to take part

Share results & the buzz

Benefits for Shelter:

On-going engagement with people across all of fundraising

Involvement in the narrowing down and building up of ideas created ownership

Bring the ideas to life, visualise them

Getting buy in

In summary

• Focus

• Understand your market

• Use insight to create reasons

• Structure how you create ideas

• Be commercial as well as creative

• Co-create, co-whittle, co-build

• Pilot quickly, cheaply and iteratively

• Get buy in

@imogenward

@Good_Innovation