How we recruited new supporters for Dementia UK via an in memory campaign

The challenge

We’ve been working with Dementia UK on Meta campaigns since 2019.

We had run lots of campaigns that asked for cash gifts directly. The idea of the Memory Wall campaign was to engage their supporters and give them a chance to share memories.

The campaign would ask people to leave a dedication (in photo and text form) on a virtual wall in memory of a loved one. They then had the option to also leave a donation if they chose to.

This was a chance to test a new proposition and set a benchmark CPA for this type of activity. We also set secondary goals of gathering insights into creative (images and copy) and audiences that responded best to the campaign.

What we did

The Memory Wall was set up on MuchLoved.

We created a suite of ads that would encourage people to write a dedication. The creative initially focused on images of real people to get the human nature of the campaign across but we also tested illustrated graphics later on.

We created a range of warm and cold audiences. We made detailed sub-audiences based on interests, lookalikes and broad audiences. This meant we could gather the best insights into what worked.

We launched the campaign in March 2022 and optimised the budgets to make sure Dementia UK got the best results for their investment.

The results

The campaign generated 611 dedications on the Memory Wall via Meta at a very competitive CPA.

60% of people who left dedications opted in to emails from Dementia UK. That gives the team the chance to encourage them to become long term supporters of the charity, further increasing their lifetime value.

The ads also generated over 10 million impressions. So the campaign really strengthened Dementia UK’s brand as well.

The pilot generated such good results for Dementia UK that we decided to adopt a seasonal approach where we would run in-mem campaigns across Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

We also tested a version of this over Christmas with results coming in stronger and stronger for each phase.

“It was great to test this campaign with Platypus. The team managed the campaign well and liaised with MuchLoved for set up to ensure tracking was set up correctly which was really beneficial. Now, we have run a few of these campaigns with Platypus we have been able to incorporate learnings into each burst, which has led to continuous improvements. I have really valued the team’s input on testing different audiences and creative and the campaigns have always run smoothly.” – Naomi Hall, Legacy & In Memory Manager at Dementia UK

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