Three predictions for charity campaigns in 2015

With the political parties kick-starting the longest General Election campaign in history this week, politics will clearly have a major impact on charity campaigns in 2015. But as PR Week reveals, it’s not the only issue campaigners and charity PRs will face in (early) 2015:

1. The Lobbying Act will continue to confuse charities and campaigners.

Part 2 of the Lobbying Act may restrict all brands, charities and campaigners’ activity during the run up to the election, so in early 2015, the impact  will start to be felt in earnest. Commentators on all sides will be watching big charities’ campaign activity closely, but as long as every charity has taken precautions, the advice is still to keep calm and keep campaigning.

However, even more worryingly, the Charity Commission has wrapped Oxfam’s knuckles for political bias in a tweet and charity campaigns in 2015 will need to be aware of the several Tory MPs that are keeping a close eye on the activities of campaigners.

2. The general election.

With government spending on comms now gradually increasing it’s unlikely we’ll see cuts to marketing on a scale we saw after the 2010 election. But what will the new government’s priorities be and are the existing rosters still going to be fit for purpose? As we’ve seen with Carat taking over HM Government’s media buying, there could be more roster change whatever the make-up of the government. And how can charity campaigns in the rest of 2015 react to any changing government marketing priorities?

3. What will be the 2015 #nomakeupselfie or #icebucketchallenge?

More charity campaigns in 2015 will be trying to create them – or piggy backing on fast evolving trends, and all charities want their ALS moment. However, only those charities that are ready to go viral and prepared to harness and integrate social media properly into their organisations will be able to benefit in the way Cancer Research UK did this year.

Image: Christian Schnettelker via Creative Commons.