Here’s how we are helping the Disasters Emergency Committee raise hundreds of millions of pounds for humanitarian appeals worldwide
The Thinking
Distillery has worked alongside the DEC since 2015 to help raise awareness and funds by creating, making and spreading content as soon as disaster strikes. So far, we’ve worked on 11 DEC appeals, including the Nepal earthquake, famine in Yemen, floods in Pakistan and the war in Ukraine. Each DEC appeal depends on fast, effective and targeted communication. As soon as a humanitarian crisis emerges, the DEC needs to educate the UK public about the response efforts required and how individuals can help by making donations.
The Making
We understand the urgent and unpredictable nature of the DEC’s work, and
provide an agile team to produce compelling and targeted content at scale and short notice. We are typically briefed a week before the appeal launch, then create a clear and simple strategic roadmap to produce channel-specific content over a three-week timeframe and assemble the relevant personnel. We then move our expertise – and part
of our team – to the DEC’s HQ to produce this content, delivering it to the right people, on the right platforms, as fast as possible.
The Blowing Up
We livestream DEC press conferences, exploit assets across social media, and manage large-scale OOH campaigns. We also leverage celebrity partnerships and co-create with influencers to extend appeal messaging reach.
The Positive Impact
Driven widespread public engagement by amplifying DEC appeals with creativity and strategic thinking.
Transformed fundraising messages into impactful awareness campaigns that continue to resonate.
Ukraine appeal has raised £400 million to support the emergency humanitarian response and set a new Guinness World Record for the most money raised by an online campaign in one week.
£400m
Raised to support the emergency Humanitarian Response