Reinventing Fundraising Charity: The Enduring Success of Red Nose Day

When Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day started in the UK, the charity industry was a deep red ocean. Competition was intense and growing, costs were up, and donations were down. Yet Red Nose Day rapidly achieved 96% national brand awareness. Fast forward 30+ years, Comic Relief has raised more than £1 billion, has become something of a British institution and has no credible imitators. In this case you’ll learn, how Comic Relief leapfrogged existing fundraising charities and emerged as one of the most distinctive charities in the UK that also enjoys the lowest costs. Find out how Comic Relief redefined the industry problem and engaged everyone to do something funny for charitable giving and how it sustained its blue ocean for over 30 years with exponential growth and no credible imitator. The case comes with a teaching note and a compelling video that highlights and literally shows what makes Red Nose Day so different from other charities while simultaneously allowing it to achieve the lowest cost structure. The video can be downloaded for teaching purposes from: https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/comic-relief/

•The case allows us to see how an organization can achieve rapid growth in a declining and highly competitive industry when it defies the conventional industry practices. •This case explains how the alignment of the value, profit, and people propositions around both differentiation and low cost builds a sustainable advantage and makes a blue ocean strategic move very difficult to imitate. •It illustrates the central importance of non-customers as a way to gain insights into how to create new demand and generate new growth.