How 'The Big Issue' Used LinkedIn Ads To Change lives with their story.

The Big Issue is an award-winning British magazine whose mission it is to dismantle poverty by creating opportunity, through self-help, social trading and business solutions. Here is how telling their story online is changing lives.

Brand Background

The Big Issue magazine launched in 1991 in response to the growing number of rough sleepers (homeless) on the streets of London, by offering people the opportunity to earn a legitimate income through selling a magazine to the public.

Each Vendor buys The Big Issue magazine for £1 and sell for £3. In this way every sales vendor of The Big Issue is a micro-entrepreneur who is working, not begging.

The Business Problem

For a vendor of The Big Issue to make a sale he needs strategically stand at a busy junction or leisure spot and pitch to the people passing by. Majority of their business model revolves around connecting with customers through conversations and social interactions.

So when the Coronavirus lockdowns hit, Big Issue vendors were unable to sell on the high streets and saw their livelihoods erased.

The solution FCB Inferno came up with

FCB Inferno is a power house creative agency based in London that took up the challenge of loving The Big Issues problem. The solution the came up with was to recreate their sales model digitally on LinkedIn.

They used location data to find the business people who worked in the area where the vendors used to sell, thus reconnecting them with old customers who used to walk by them every day.

They also trained the vendors on how to use and post ads on LinkedIn. This allowed Vendors to reconnect with their regular customers and even acquire new customers through their posts and conversations online.

The Results

Vendor increased their sales dramatically and reconnected with their favorite customers. The sales percentage shifted from 1 out of every 20 customer per sale to 1 out of every 10. There was a 325% increase in magazine subscriptions

400% increase in magazines sold. This cementing the efficacy of the campaign.

As a bonus vendors not only sold more digital subscriptions to the magazine, but upskilled digitally in the process, changing perceptions about what Big Issue vendors could accomplish.

Takeaways and Conclusion:

This example is the perfect case study and proof of concept, of how advertising can very effectively be used as an instrument to bring about real change in society.

Advertising solutions don't just have to be in the form of commercials and films, equally powerful campaigns can be run through social media post and interactions.

FCB Inferno realized that the biggest asset that The Big Issue has, is their story and what they are trying to do for people. So leveraging that by keeping their story at the fore front of their digital campaign was a brilliant decision. In advertising the story is often times the key catalyst for establishing change, never forget that.