What if every email looked like this?

Background

RNIB's aim for this email was to raise awareness of the frustrations that partially sighted people can experience in their lives.  They wanted recipients to stop taking good eyesight for granted and to empathise with the plight of the blind.

Idea

Every email was personalised in the subject heading to deter recipients from hitting the delete button, 'Ed, imagine if every email looked like this?'

Once they opened the email, they saw where the images had failed to download.

If they clicked to download, nothing happened.

It was now that they noticed the message, ‘If only everyone could see with the click of a mouse’. And they could click through to the RNIB website.

Results

Because all previous emails from the RNIB had failed to meet their objectives, this was a test, designed to raise awareness.

The email achieved an open rates of 14%, considerably higher than the cold campaign which was part of an integrated campaign with radio and digital advertising and would be expected to perform well.

The click-through rate was 22%, much higher than the average CTR for non-profit organizations of 3.5%.

The email was heralded as an example of industry best practice at the Institute of Fundraising National Convention.

Our Thoughts

For me, it’s these little briefs with hardly any money available which really test creative people. Because email is rarely successful, as the RNIB’s own experience testified, that doesn’t mean to say it’s never successful. It just needs someone to take the time and trouble to have an idea.

That said, good ideas need good clients. Many would have overloaded this job with so many objectives (money to be raised, email addresses to be captured etc) it would have failed against them all.