Staffed by a majority volunteer workforce Pennies has grown rapidly from a simple concept to a fully functioning method of donating, with just under 390,000 individual ’round-ups’ since it launched in November last year (2010). With the government spotlight now on ways to support charities in the wake of funding cuts, Pennies has even more reason to be cheerful as their innovative approach gathers momentum.
Already integrated by Domino’s Pizza, Travelodge and Zizzi the concept is fast being adopted by retailers across the UK.
Since 2009 Base have been working with the Pennies Foundation, to support turning the concept into a functioning reality. Having created an online presence for the foundation, in late 2010 we set about bringing the new ‘Pennies’ brand to life online.
intro animation
The ‘electronic charity box’ idea is simple but as a brand new concept a 60 second animation was developed to educate newcomers. The music for the animation was commissioned specially too.
a platform for growth
A content managed website was launched so that staff at Pennies could take ownership of the day-to-day management. By delivering tools to help you engage, it makes you an active part of the process and the output for a far better end product. On the WordPress platform, the mechanics of updating the site requires minimal training too.
email campaigns and social media
An email newsletter campaign was designed and built as well as the branding applied to social platforms being used (Twitter, Facebook and Vimeo).
search marketing and Google Grant
As part of the brand launch it was important to make sure that anyone who’d heard about Pennies either at the checkout or in the press, would be able to find out more by searching online. We set up an SEO campaign around key phrases like ‘electronic charity box‘, to gain as much exposure as possible and encouraged the use of the phrases in site content to ensure that Pennies would rise quickly to the top. We also assisted with the Google Grant application process, where eligible non-profits can apply for free Google advertising through it’s AdWords system. Pennies were successfully awarded the grant after the first application.
We continue to work directly with the Pennies marketing team, currently based in the heart of the city at London Wall.