Big boots to fill: the evolution of The Smith Family’s top-performing DRTV
Education is one of the world’s most powerful change agents, I’m sure you will agree. Yet educational inequality, driven by poverty, remains a significant challenge in Australia with a staggering 1.2 million Australian children and young people living in poverty. The Smith Family exists to shift the dial by supporting as many young people as possible to get the very best from their education.
Doug Taylor, The Smith Family’s CEO, believes the organisation is a “national treasure” because of the difference it makes through education, made possible in part thanks to the generosity of tens of thousands of Australians who have become student sponsors. Their financial commitment ensures that a child and their family receive whatever support they need to keep up at school, whether it be uniforms and books, extra learning support and homework clubs, sponsorship makes so much possible.
Student sponsorship is The Smith Family’s most significant acquisition programme, promoted primarily on TV and in digital channels. And, over the last 9 years it’s seen considerable growth thanks to The Smith Family’s ongoing commitment to investment in DRTV media and production. It’s one of the largest not-for-profit DRTV programmes in ANZ.
In that time DTV has produced a double-digit suite of DRTV creatives in partnership with The Smith Family. Here we’ll tell you about two of them.
‘I Wish’ DRTV which has been in market for almost three years, is a remake of the highly successful ‘Without You,’ which was a top performer for close to six years. ‘Without You’ was still performing strongly when The Smith Family reached a pivotal moment in its fundraising journey, a brand refresh that led to:
a review of how they communicate the issue of poverty in Australia
changes to how they talk about and visually represent the families they support
a renewed focus on the solution The Smith Family’s offers
Known internally as the ‘Frameworks Project’ this approach is now a guiding philosophy for all marketing and fundraising. It has influenced DRTV and integrated digital creative strategy since 2022 when two existing DRTV creatives were optimised for Frameworks with changes to footage, scripting, visual aesthetic and soundtack.
Since moving fully to Frameworks in January 2023, we’ve retired all original DRTV assets. With years of Frameworks learnings under our belt, we keep pushing and refining the creative strategy to ensure we’re meeting Frameworks goals and staying true what makes DRTV work - urgency, emotion and a simple problem that viewers can help solve.
‘Without You’ was the first creative to be fully replaced and I’m pleased to say that with big boots to fill (literally – ‘Annie, the girl with the yellow gumboots’ became synonymous with The Smith Family DRTV), ‘I Wish’ is delivering significant sponsor volumes and remains a top performer that we are all very proud of.
Watch below the original ‘Without You’ with ‘Annie, the girl with the yellow gumboots’ and the new, top performing ‘I Wish’.
Without You
I Wish
Bio
Sydney-based Laurie has worked in fundraising her entire career and at DTV for over seven years. As a Strategist and Executive Producer, she is grateful to work with brilliant fundraisers and good causes every day, she can’t imagine doing anything else. When she’s not doing that, she’s likely hiking in the mountains or otherwise at home telling her cats how cute they are.