Director of fundraising and marketing, Disaster Emergency Committee
The workload for Simon Beresford and his team has tragically ramped up in the last two years, as war and natural disaster render millions worldwide in need of support. To mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine last year, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) released a film paying tribute to the resilience of those lives shattered by the conflict. Filmed in Ukraine with a majority Ukrainian cast and crew, the ‘Never Alone’ spot was supported by a hub sharing stories of those benefiting from DEC donations. By the time of the second anniversary in February this year, the appeal had raised more than £425m and helped an estimated 6.9 million people. The DEC likewise released a film in February to mark the first anniversary of the devastating Turkey and Syria earthquake. ‘The Locker’ illustrates the resilience of people living within those communities and the essential role donations have played in supporting survivors. The charity’s appeal raised £150m over the year, making it one of its most significant fundraising efforts to date.■
Executive director of fundraising & marketing, Cancer Research UK
Under Philip Almond’s leadership, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) refreshed its brand last year to refocus on the impact of the charity’s work. Its strapline was updated from ‘Together, we will beat cancer’ to ‘Together, we are beating cancer’, a subtle but powerful change. Almond has since said the refresh “exceeded” targets in terms of brand metrics, following a “very strong” reaction on social media. The charity sought to repeat the trick this year by refreshing Race for Life, its flagship fundraising event, to attract a wider and more gender-inclusive audience. A new ad campaign, ‘Life is worth racing for’, encapsulates the emotional energy of the event, while its iconic bright pink colour has been updated with a blueish hue. Almond hopes the refresh will help the brand double participation numbers. The fundraising continued in June as The Marketing Society teamed up with Stand Up to Cancer on its annual Sprintathon, which has raised over £900,000 over the past eight years. Despite a tough economic climate, Cancer Research UK raised £719m in the year to August 2023, £51m more than the previous year.■
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Philip Almond
Simon Beresford
Head of advocacy and campaigns, Social Mobility Foundation
As leader of the Social Mobility Foundation’s Department for Opportunities, Rosalind Goates’s job is to identify opportunities and barriers to its mission to accelerate social mobility, while working with partners to deliver change. At the end of 2022, her team launched ‘Stay Down’, a film designed to highlight the insidious nature of classism in the workplace. The film ends with the message: ‘Some horrors aren’t fiction. Classism is still holding people down.’ Goates claims the film broke the silence around social mobility and normalised the conversation about workplace classism. As of July 2023, the campaign’s impact was still being felt. BBC Studios invited the foundation to screen the film internally as a step towards a more inclusive workplace. Research suggests genuine progress is being made. The charity’s Social Mobility Employer Index 2023 found more employers are reducing barriers to young people from different socio-economic backgrounds, such as by reducing minimum grade restrictions. Nearly a third of employers no longer consider grades at all. However, there’s still a lot of work to be done. In preparation, Goates began expanding her team last year.■
Head of marketing, Teenage Cancer Trust
Warren Fiveash joined the Teenage Cancer Trust in 2021 to lead the charity’s marketing strategy and wider operational plan. Dedicated to marketing excellence and audience-centricity, Fiveash encourages his team to share their failures alongside their successes. The charity last year developed an audience toolkit to help its team better understand its community’s motivations. The Teenage Cancer Trust has a jam-packed marketing calendar as it raises awareness of the human stories behind the disease. Campaigns include December’s ‘Stop Cancer Taking Our Teens’, which highlighted how the healthcare crisis could impact young people with cancer, and the 'Cancer Care, Made for Young People' brand campaign, which went back to the route of why the charity exists. It doesn’t stop there. In July 2023, Teenage Cancer Trust launched a campaign with Aldi, which featured the stories of young people across the retailer’s marketing channels. Earlier in 2024, the charity launched a campaign to mark the 10th anniversary of the passing of Stephen Sutton, who raised more than £6m to help young people with cancer. Elsewhere, this year’s Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at the Royal Albert Hall raised over £2m, the highest amount ever secured by the event series.■
Warren Fiveash
Rosalind Goates
Former brand and marketing director, Macmillan Cancer Support
Charities are still recovering from the impact the pandemic had on fundraising, but thanks to the efforts of Macmillan Cancer Support’s recently departed marketing boss, Anthony Newman, it continues to find new ways to drive donations. Partnerships have proved crucial for the charity, which already has longstanding relationships with Boots, M&S Cafe and Greene King. Under Newman’s watch, the charity also signed Santander as the first sponsor of its Mighty Hikes fundraising events. The three-year partnership includes a £140,000 donation towards the Macmillan Grants service. Less expected but equally important is Macmillan’s latest partnership with sexual wellness brand Lovehoney. A new content series on YouTube tackles the taboo around sex following a cancer diagnosis, as data from Macmillan suggests tens of thousands of cancer patients in the UK suffer from low self-confidence and intimacy concerns. From a creative perspective, Macmillan’s award-winning documentary series Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life returned for a second series this year. The first series secured an average audience of over 1 million for each episode, prompting Channel 4 to air the new series at an earlier time of 9pm.■
Director of fundraising, communications and operations, Unseen UK
With Sian Hartstill at the helm of its fundraising team, anti-slavery charity Unseen UK secured £1m from the National Lottery Community Fund this year to support its helpline and ensure it remains accessible for those who need it most.
The charity also ended last year on a high, having won the 2023 Marketing Week Award for Best Use of a Small Budget for its ‘Ukraine Welcome Text’ campaign. It worked with UK-based telcos and ad agency BBD Perfect Storm to prevent the exploitation of Ukrainian refugees by human traffickers, geo-targeting them with a welcome text containing advice. Unseen’s efforts to raise awareness about modern slavery continued throughout the year, with its helpline featured on the BT Tower for Anti-Slavery Day. A refreshed app was launched for frontline professionals, businesses and the general public, so they can identify and report modern slavery in confidence, and in the run-up to Christmas, the charity launched its annual 'Big Give' appeal, which raised £57,888 to fund its helpline. Unseen also presented the second annual 'Chocolate Scorecard' in collaboration with Be Slavery Free last year. The initiative promotes ethical choices within the chocolate industry, helping it secure international press coverage to drive awareness among millions worldwide.■
Sian Hartstill
Anthony
Newman
Head of media brand & relationships, Women’s Aid
After more than two decades at Women’s Aid, Teresa Parker believes good marketing leaders free themselves to be creative, while encouraging team members to be creative too. That mindset has likely laid the foundation for a number of campaigns, including the charity’s ongoing effort to raise awareness about domestic abuse. Before the start of the 2024 UEFA Euros football tournament, Women’s Aid kicked off ‘No More Years of Hurt’ - the next iteration of its ‘He’s Coming Home’ campaign, which began during the Men’s World Cup in 2022. Research shows that cases of domestic abuse increase by 38% when England loses a football game, and by 26% whether they win or lose. The first iteration of He’s Coming Home started important conversations, garnering 23 million views on TikTok. The charity also recorded a 17% increase in traffic to its information and support pages, and a 40% uplift to its donation page. Last year, Women’s Aid focused on tapping into the cultural conversation. The charity collaborated with singer and former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson on a music video depicting domestic abuse, signposting women towards support.■
Chief innovation, income and engagement officer, Marie Curie
With more than two decades’ experience in the charity sector and nearly three years at Marie Curie, Maria Novell was promoted to the new role of chief innovation, income and engagement officer in August last year. Since then, the charity has increased its fundraising target by 30% to support its new five-year strategy, which aims to double the number of people it provides direct end-of-life care for by the end of 2028. To support this ambition, Novell led a refresh of the brand’s visual identity and launched a new TV spot, which shows the experiences of people living with a terminal disease. The emotionally hard-hitting ad raises awareness of Marie Curie’s work and reframes death as a part of life. Subsequent campaigns - including Christmas and its legacy campaign '#WillTalk' - continue to share real people’s stories, break taboos, and encourage donations.
She has talked about the importance of having a "strong brand" and the fact it is crucial to ensuring the charity connects with its audience. Something she has worked hard to achieve over the past three years.■
Maria Novell
Teresa Parker
Head of brand and marketing, Alzheimer’s Society
Nick Wright has been very busy since joining the Alzheimer’s Society in September 2023 - a job he describes as his “dream role”. The charity has launched a number of campaigns since then, including its TV ad, ‘The Long Goodbye’, which returned for a second run in August. The emotionally provocative ad ruffled some feathers when it was first launched, attracting complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for its unvarnished depiction of the devastating impact Alzheimer’s has. However, online comments were 80% positive, and the ASA ultimately cleared the advert. Dementia Action Week is always a hectic time for the Alzheimer’s Society, and this year was no different. The charity partnered with Mail Metro Media on an awareness campaign across the Daily Mail, MailOnline, Metro and the i newspaper; elsewhere, it took over Blackpool with the UK’s biggest hyper-local out-of-home campaign. Some 75 unique contextual executions ran across 120 poster sites to highlight the hidden cost of dementia. The charity continues to use the power of football to drive awareness, recently signing another one-year contract extension as the FA’s charity partner.■
CMO, British Heart Foundation
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is pushing ahead with its mission to improve the nation’s heart health. Central to this work is Claire Sadler’s team, which unveiled a series of 12 hand-painted murals ahead of the UEFA Euros football tournament this summer, entitled ‘England ‘till I died’. The campaign aim was to drive awareness of the 12 young lives lost to cardiac death each week in the UK. Showing commitment to consistency and longevity, Sadler decided not to create a new Christmas ad last year. Instead, BHF ran its 2022 ad for a second time. “It’s not worn out, it works, and the message is as relevant as ever,” Sadler wrote on LinkedIn. In a tough climate, BHF managed to increase its net income by 2% in 2022/23, to £144m. Meanwhile, a print ad for BHF landed in the top 4% of all UK ads for “credibility”, making it the most effective ad in the July edition of Kantar’s The Works study. On a personal level, Sadler has been busy in her role as a WACL member. She proved instrumental in the rollout of the network’s first ad campaign ‘#RepresentMe’, highlighting the importance of positive representation of women in advertising. Sadler is set to become vice-president of the organisation next year.■
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