Charity Macmillan Cancer Support’s flagship fundraising event, the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, was looking to engage new audiences in the digital world when the editor of the new Future title The Knitter, called with an idea for a campaign called The Macmillan Comfort Blanket. The Knitter knew thousands of knitters love to use their skills to help charities and Macmillan saw this was a great opportunity to integrate its flagship fundraiser and biggest campaign at the time, Fuel Poverty.

Methodology

Macmillan and The Knitter came up with a simple idea that was both motivational and engaging, and was cost effective because it could be all delivered online. The ask was simple: download a pattern and knit a square, register for World’s Biggest Coffee Morning then meet up with friends and stitch squares together into a blanket.

The Knitter negotiated free knitting patterns from renowned designers which were available for free download from Macmillan’s site, and hand-knitting company Rowan provided knitting guides ensuring both beginners and advanced knitters signed up.

The campaign was communicated through key online channels including Macmillan’s website, Facebook Group (22,000 fans) and Twitter page (4,000 followers), The Knitter magazine and its sister publication Simply Knitting, Rowan’s website, social network Ravelry (700,000 users), the John Lewis website, and key online influencers including Jane Brocket’s blog Yarnstorm, Allaboutyou.com and London Stitch&Bitch.

Results

Over a 10-week period, the amounts raised included:

• £32,000 through coffee morning registrations

• £30,000 in support and resources from The Knitter

• £15,000 in support and resources from Rowan

Other results included:

• Over 100 pieces of online coverage

• 1,500 comments on social networks and forums

• Over 270 blankets were created

Finally, results from the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning knitting hub were as follows:

• 15,316 unique visitors

• 48,625 page views

• Knitting activity dominated the external referrers’ list with knitting sites/blogs (ie, sites that delivered traffic to the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning site)

• Entry pages for the entire Macmillan site for September saw the knitting page rank at number nine – higher than the first cancer type in the list

Dialogue with supporters was maintained throughout, updating them on campaign progress, thanking them, and offering information on anything from solving knitting problems to Macmillan’s Fuel Poverty campaign.

Supporters speak about the campaigns benefits: Pat Paddle said, “I’m on chemotherapy and it makes me very tired. Normally I just stare in to space but signing up to this campaign got me motivated and focused.”

The Macmillan Comfort Blanket successfully secured a deep level of engagement with supporters – this was marked by the high volume of comment across social networks, blog coverage, traffic to the knitting page on the Macmillan site, funds raised and the 270-plus blankets received.