Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Legacies Campaign

Through its fundraising efforts, Kew invites supporters to leave a gift in their Will - a legacy that helps to safeguard the world’s plants and fungi, protect vulnerable habitats and inspire the next generation of experts.

Here's how we developed an impactful digital marketing campaign across social, PPC, display and advertorial placements to encourage sign-ups.

Well-known for its unrivalled collection of plants and fungi, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s work to protect biodiversity may be somewhat overlooked by the millions of visitors who make the trip to Kew for a day out each year.

We were tasked to develop a Spring Legacies campaign, in line with Free Wills Month in March, to extend the reach of this message, driving leads from people interested in leaving a charitable gift in their Will.

The subject being highly personal and sensitive for most, we did extensive research and bespoke YouGov polling across the 50+ age segment to determine current awareness of Kew’s conservationist efforts. We explored how likely the audience is to consider a charity gift in their Will, and what messages resonate.

We adapted content to be social-first, using emotive messaging to show how donations support vital research, training and preservation programmes, with a strong call to action.

We partnered with Kew and The Guardian to launch a rich microsite for upper- and mid-funnel engagement. Our Google Search activity drove action, whilst our placement tests across LinkedIn and YouTube helped to expand reach.

The campaign achieved 2M ad impressions and 62 quality lead form submissions. The partnership with The Guardian was particularly fruitful for the upper funnel part of the campaign, with over 19K unique users. We also delivered a strong, cost-efficient CPC of £1.41.

Building on this success, Kew invited us to partner again - with two new campaigns in the pipeline that we’re excited to deliver.