Birkett Long, an Essex based Law firm, were about to celebrate their 200th anniversary and asked us to put together some ideas on how they might do this.
After working with them for some years we had a pretty good understanding of the business and their standing in the community. They were actively involved in and supported many local charities, and would give staff days off to volunteer at different charitable events throughout the year.
We felt that a generous company like Birkett Long deserved a campaign that would reflect their contribution to the community.
The Idea – Random acts of kindness
We proposed to run a campaign based on random acts of kindness where departments within the firm would be given a monthly budget to spend on gifts. There were no rules around who would receive the gifts, how much or what the gifts should be.
The partners fully embraced the idea and quickly communicated the idea to the whole firm. The activity took people out of their comfort zone when it was first rolled out, it wasn’t something they were used to doing. However, after the slow start it gained momentum and eventually stories came flooding in both internally and externally. People were creating thank-you videos after receiving a random gift, staff were posting messages on social media and the whole firm became engulfed in the spirit of giving.
The outcome
The marketing managers response was:
“this is absolutely the best thing we have ever done”
The managing partner response was:
“The campaign has been a great success and I would like to see the company continue the practice going forward”
They also won a regional business award for the campaign.
For us, it really was great to be involved in something that changed lives and changed the behaviour of people in so many ways. The power of creativity in action.