Cancer Research UK is aiming to steal a march on its rival charities – and brand owners alike – by launching a major marketing campaign designed to get its database compliant with the new EU data protection laws at least 10 months before the May 2018 deadline.
The campaign, which launched in The Sunday Times, urges supporters to give the charity explicit consent to contact them, under the strapline: “Your tick helps us beat cancer soon” and urges consumers to visit cruk.org/justatick to complete the process.
The text reads: “Right now, your tick is one of the most important tools in the fight against cancer. Your tick means we can continue to talk to you, raising vital funds to beat cancer sooner, but without it we can’t. From 1st July 2017 we are making a change and will only contact you with news of the latest breakthroughs, appeals and ways to get involved if you have told us we can.
“Find out the impact your tick can have on life-saving research and tell us how you’d like to be kept updated at cruk.org/justatick. We don’t want you to miss out. A tick may not seem like much, but it has the power to do great things.”
Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), brands which do not have consent for marketing risk huge financial penalties.
CRUK committed to using only opt-in data for all of its fundraising activity, including direct mail, in March last year, despite admitting it will lose millions of pounds from the decision.
At the time, CRUK executive director of fundraising and marketing Ed Aspel said: “It’s difficult to say how much this will cost us, but the better we do it, the smaller the amount will be and the sooner we’ll be making more money.
“We’re doing this because we think there’s a long-term gain to be had by doing the right thing by supporters and respecting their wishes. If they’re going to opt in and hear from us on their own terms, then we’ve got to give them a reason to opt out – and that’s about better relationships.”
RNLI, which has already started the process, was first out of the blocks in December 2015. It predicted the move will leave a £36m hole in its coffers over the next five years.
The policy means that both charities will be able to contact supporters only if they have given unambiguous and explicit permission.
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