THE CAMPAIGN BRIEF Youth charity, Rhythmix, was quietly going about its business when hit show X Factor created a manufactured girlband with the same name. Simco Ltd subsequently embarked on trademarking the band’s name, despite the pre-existence of the charity.

Publically, X Factor had appeared to have backed-down – renaming the band Little Mix to great fanfare – but privately it was different, with the fight for the trademark still being pursued.

The result was a crippling legal battle that could have potentially shut it down. It was at crisis point. Following many calls and letters, the charity was being blanked and was forced to spend money it couldn’t afford on legal support. At the point we entered the fray, the fees were already in excess of £8k and rising fast.

In a last-ditch attempt, the charity published a Facebook open letter, calling on Simon to do the right thing. It was this letter the caught the eye of Team Unity, one cold Friday in November.

Disgusted, we stepped in. And we didn’t mess about. Within four hours of contacting the Rhythmix CEO, he’d bravely handed over all social media channels and #CowellMustPay was live. With the weekend around the corner (when X Factor airs), we simply couldn’t afford to delay.

OBJECTIVESOur self-imposed brief was simple - stop Simco Ltd’s trademark application whilst securing the payment of the charity’s legal fees.

STRATEGY AND TACTICSX Factor is a British institution. To generate public support for a small, unknown charity Unity would have to create buzz that would captivate the audience. In addition to X Factor fans, we planned a duel campaign that would also target the powerful anti-X Factor groups.

To reach both audiences, we choose to borrow from the language of X Factor to show that, frankly, this kind of bullying just wasn’t acceptable.

The concept ‘Vote Rhythmix’ - a direct play on the show’s voting process - was born, asking the public to vote for the charity, rather than the show and – in the case of X Factor fans - divert the funds they would usually spend to a better cause.

A hashtag #CowellMustPay was also used to drive social media support – drawing on a double meaning of asking Cowell to pay for his mistakes as well as the mounting legal fees.

The main Twitter message was:Vote the right thing! Give to @RhythmixMusic & not to #XFactor #CowellMustPay text RTMX11£1 to 70070

Mirroring the show, we investigated also having a phone vote option – and had even persuaded Alistair McGowan to reproduce the famous voice of X Factor announcer Peter Dickson - but the technical costs were just impossible and time too tight.

As a company we braced ourselves for a busy weekend.

Online, we targeted those with large social influence and saw a huge upsurge in support. The campaign soon became centre-stage in the British public’s minds, amassing over 700,000 social impressions in just 48 hours and generating support from the likes of Paul Epworth, Pearl Lowe, Lucy Rose, Jason Gardiner, Armando Iannucci, Adam Ficek, Caroline Lucas MP, Lisa Moorish, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, New Young Pony Club & many others.

Yet still no word from Cowell.

With dogged determination we sought extra support from those with social capital. Stephen Fry stepped up, providing us with a quote that further boosted the campaign; “We would love to believe that this is a complete misunderstanding and that he, of all people, will support the right of this established and hugely respected music charity to continue using its name without the threat of his power descending and obliterating them.”

#CowellMustPay for Rhythmix

Following a different tack, the irony of the fact that such action from an industry which so fiercely protects its own copyright, wasn’t lost on us. And consequently we began a dual offline campaign, aimed more squarely at the media and wider political influencers.

Again it caught like fire. The media agreed with us that for Simon, it was “TIME TO FACE THE MUSIC” with coverage appearing on the BBC, The Guardian, The Sun, The Independent, PA, The Quietus, Left Foot Forward and online via MSN and Yahoo.

And our political outreach also gained traction - with MP Caroline Lucas filing an early day motion in the House of Commons.

To put this in perspective, we’d first contacted Rhythmix on the Friday, it was now just the Monday.

In order to drive the campaign in the second week – and not waste the McGowan opportunity - we created a series of sound and video vignettes featuring ‘Simon’ and the other judges. We got a mock announcement from Louis hosted on SoundCloud, from which we drove twitter buzz and intrigue, but the films where never to see the light of day.

The noise created was simply impossible to ignore – summed up succinctly by Twitter tour de force @ Popjustice: “Fucking hell can’t someone just give Rhythmix the eight grand” – and Simon finally stepped in.

The battle was won, we downed tools and our videos were filed neatly away for another day.

OUTPUTS

Star, Daily Mail, Evening Standard, The Independent, NME and The Sun among those celebrating the success

in two days with four times the amount of ‘Likes’ they had had before the campaign.

OUTCOMESSimco Ltd not only paid all legal costs, but also donated generously and apologised for its actions.

Coupled with the extra £4,000 raised through text donations and the thousands of new followers generated, the campaign was a resounding success.

We’d helped turn the threat of ruin into a public and financial success for a truly wonderful charity that helps boost the lives of many young Britons.

And to think that four days previously, Rhythmix and Unity were perfect strangers.

BUDGETPro Bono