One of several hundred bodies scattered throughout the field, Sally Hanson curls deeper into her sleeping bag, trying to ignore the damp creeping in. It’s about three in the morning, and although it’s dead quiet, few people are actually asleep. A light drizzle has left the crowd of IT professionals soggy, but they’ve worked hard to earn the privilege of sleeping under the stars, so there’s no turning back now.
This unusual scene is known as Byte Night an IT industry fundraising sleepout in aid of homelessness prevention charity Action for Children. Hanson, who is global marketing communications director at Microfocus and a Byte Night board member, is involved with marketing the event.
The sleepout takes place across five locations London, Thames Valley, Manchester, Newcastle and Scotland. Attendees or ‘sleepers’ are primarily IT industry vendors or recruitment agents wrangled in by the Byte Night board to sleep out rough for one night in October. All sleepers, as teams or individuals, must be sponsored to partake £5k for a team, £2k an individual for the London location, less at other sites.
Hanson first attended six years ago as a member of HP’s team, and has been hooked ever since. The vulnerability that it could happen to anybody and any time, really resonated with her, she explains, adding that she’ll never forget the testimonials of children saved by the charity.
Does it make you realise what it’s like? Yes, to a degree, but then we go home and shower and [the homeless] don’t get to do that. It does make you think these guys face it every single day.
For the past five years she has been involved with Byte Night London, but this year she has been tasked with raising the profile of the event in Thames Valley the hub of IT, Hanson points out, and the district thumbed for big expansion of the event. Every year I’ve become involved with driving it more, she explains. We need to start giving back a little more in IT.
As a board member, Hanson promotes Byte Night to IT companies, both through her own contacts and by speaking at other companies, and tries to get as many people on board as she can. No one is safe from her call to arms employees, agencies and suppliers, even friends and family are all at risk of being wrangled in.
Marketing for the event has two goals. Firstly, to recruit sleepers to partake in the event and secondly to raise awareness in the industry so that people will sponsor the sleepers. As both these targets are pretty similar audiences, Hanson has found the marketing approach overlaps a great deal.
Word of mouth and a high level of personalisation are the cornerstones of her approach. She begins to stimulate interest by sending out targeted, personalised and branded emails, utilising social media and securing media placements in relevant publications from about nine months before the event. It’s a very personal approach, she stresses. It’s one-to-one marketing.
Hanson is supported by agency Wilson Miller, which has volunteered its services, and has implemented an online advertising campaign and personalised Byte Night email signatures, amongst other things.
Social media has been a growing aspect of the marketing mix, both due to the advancement of the tools available and taking into consideration the audience targeted. Hanson blogs about the event, involves people via LinkedIn and Facebook, and all participants are given a guide on how to twitter to help spread the word. It really has moved from conventional marketing into the new online world, which is where most of our audience is looking, she notes. Looking into the future, she only sees these methods continuing to grow in popularity.
The strategy also relies heavily on participants doing a lot of self-promotion, and each potential sleeper is given a PR pack, which includes a Byte Night email signature, web banner and flyers etc. Sleepers are encouraged to raise funds in many creative ways from office bake sales to car washes and bosses shaving their heads. Most people raise their money through their contacts in IT which also helps to spread the word, Hanson points out.
Celebrity endorsement has done much to draw attention to the event. Jenny Agutter has been a long-time supporter of the cause. Other celebrity supporters have included: Emily Maitlis, Sandi Toksvig, Sian Lloyd, Angus Deayton, Rory Cellan-Jones, Theresa May and Jeremy Paxman many of whom created messages of support for the event’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/bytenight.
The effectiveness of the marketing is measured by Wilson Miller, which monitors site hits, and also asks applicants where they heard about the event.
There are a whole host of reasons people partake in the event. I love the charity, I’m making a difference, I’m doing it for myself and yeah, I’m doing it to network and help my organisation who’ve helped me support [the charity], Hanson explains the thought process of those involved.
Being charitable aside, Byte Night offers a lot to its attendees.
Networking is one major perk. It’s fantastic for networking, Hanson exclaims. If you’ve been to one, you do meet people you end up doing business with. It’s quite a bonding experience because it’s an unusual thing to do you do meet contacts that you stay in touch with. Lots of business goes on after the event.
There is also the benefit of corporate social responsibility credentials. Byte Night branding can be placed in conjunction with a business’s branding, which serves not only to promote the event, but also bolster the business’s image as charitable.
It’s become a thing that people really want to do really gained a lot of momentum, Hanson observes with pride.
With attendance set to break records and fundraising expected to hit £450,000, Hanson’s major worry should be whether her sleeping bag is waterproof or not.
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