By Sarah Johnson, Marketing Direct, 04 July 2008, 10:40am

ParalympicsGB launch first DRTV campaign featuring Paul McCartney

LONDON - The British Paralympics Association has launched its first direct response television campaign with direct agency Mike Colling & Co (MC&C) and Team Saatchi.

The ads feature and were devised by Sir Paul McCartney and support brand adverts by Team Saatchi. They will be aired throughout July across satellite channels including Sky Sports, the Discovery Channels and UKTV Drama. It targets the 35 plus audience and will run during the day.

It is the first time the agency has worked with the association. It worked with with Team Saatchi to create the 90 second ad, which asks for donations by text or phone and also directs the audience to the charity's website.

Lou Dean, senior TV planner and buyer at MC&C said: "The association has not done any fundraising of this sort before. It is very different from other charities in terms of its target audience and needs a lot of support to raise money to pay for specialist equipment and training for its olympians."

Tom Jenkins, director of marketing & communications at the ParalympicsGB, said: The concept for the two ads came from Paul McCartney. We have never used DRTV before but felt this medium world work best for us."