The challenge

The charity needed to track awareness of their ‘backstreet breeding’ campaign, which aims to stop unlicensed breeding of dogs. It asks members of the public to email their MP to raise the issue in Parliament and on social media. They also wanted to track their Staffies campaign, which challenges negative perceptions of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier breed.

What we did

Through our Charity Awareness Monitor (CAM), we asked 1,000 members of the public: whether they were aware of the backstreet breeding campaign; what they understood by the term ‘backstreet breeding’; and if they had heard of the “Staffies. They’re softer than you think” campaign.

Our impact

Questions about the campaigns in CAM, which is quarterly, helped Battersea Dogs & Cats Home monitor their effectiveness.

We discovered that people generally understood what the term means, with most describing it as “illegal”, “unregulated”, “profit-driven”, or “breeding fighting dogs”.

This data was reported back to directors and helped evidence the power of campaign messaging and promotion. Other campaigns are building on these messages, helping the charity reach more people – and protect more animals.

“We have a good relationship with nfpSynergy and consider their research a cost effective way of researching the market to inform our strategies and evaluate our activity,” - says Claire Fishersmith, Marketing Manager at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. - “They have a good understanding of what we do, are they’re passionate and enthusiastic. It’s important to compare our brand with other charities as it’s a competitive market and we need to ensure we are performing. The Charity Awareness Monitor, and the Brand Attributes Monitor, which we are also signed up to, are really good measurement tools to help us do this.”