Pro bono campaigns don’t work
Despite a career filled with successful pro bono campaigns, Headjam’s Mike Preston has some news for the industry: charity work isn’t working.
It may seem like a great idea to have a group of creatives to do your campaign free of charge. And many people in the industry happily work pro bono because they are passionate about a cause.
Others are only passionate about the opportunity of winning an award, and often the campaigns are a short-term Band-Aid fix rather than a long-term solution.
Over the years I have provided my time pro bono for countless projects in the area of mental health. I have a personal reason for my passion of highlighting mental illness, and it has driven me to work on many campaigns pro bono. That was until last year at The Mental Health Services (TheMHS) conference, where I had the profound realisation that it just doesn’t work.
A click bait title that is contradicted by the arguments in the actual article. Do campaigns well and they will work. Do them half assed and they won’t. This applies to any campaign, regardless of whether it’s for a pro-bono client or not. That doesn’t mean we stop doing them all together.
HBR did a study that analysed the effect charity work had on employees. Hyper tension went down. If we aren’t causing a net negative for charities, and we providing work that has more meaning then selling consumer goods, what is the harm? If people opt in to the work, it’s hard for me to see a reason not to do it.
I disagree that Agency’s should not provide pro-bono to certain Charities, but the key is that unless the Agency is fully committed to that Charity, then the work will be inconsistent and is also hard to back-up or sustain. I applaud anyone for trying to make a difference, but the reality is if the Agency management are not supportive – then the only one who loses out is the Charity themselves. The former example of Clemenger BBDO allowing the company’s resources to be used “after hours” is a clear sign that the charity is not a priority for the business – therefore whatever work is generated (as good as it may be), is never going to have the necessary firepower behind it to sustain it. If an Agency adopted a charity fully and applied a head-count to it – absorbed through the broader agency bottom line, but treated as key client like any other, then it could be a fertile ground for younger creatives and senior mentoring – but needs that infrastructure to make the end results worthwhile. I also hate the notion of Award winning as a motivation.Yes it exists, but its a moral contradiction to say I’m helping this Charity, when the real motivation is Awards or self gratification, or giving the client whatever work you determine because they are not paying and they will get what I give them.
For any agency keen to test the theory of fully committing to one charity – the Youth Food Movement is seeking a pro-bono partner to work on its initiatives that seek to empower young people to unbreak our food systems. Tasty opportunity to address massive issues like waste, health and ageing and diminishing population of farmers.