One week ago, on March 31st, the FlexMR insights marketing team took a break from our day-to-day. Instead, we donated our time to the United Nations and World Heath Organisation’s global call to creatives. The challenge was to create assets, campaigns and ideas that could be used to communicate critical public health messages to everyone, everywhere.
To make the challenge more collaborative – we livestreamed the entire day via YouTube. Yep, the whole 8 hours! The recording, for those interested in our creative process, can be viewed here. Over the course of the past week, we’ve been refining the assets that started production on the livestream. I’m proud to say, these have now been submitted and our contribution to the brief is official.
In this piece, I wanted to share these assets with you and a short explanation about how we came up with the ideas. Please do download these images, assets and share them! As the UN have stated, the more that the right messages are spread – the greater the impact will be. All of the images showcased below can be found in this zip file.
Busting COVID-19 Myths
The first of the six mini-briefs we decided to tackle was about busting common myths associated with the coronavirus. As the brief states, fear and misinformation are two of the biggest challenges we must overcome. We cannot allow them to go viral. Misinformation continues to spread, including incorrect advice, conspiracy theories and inflammatory claims which discriminate against certain groups of people.
Out of the 14 common myths, we chose to focus on six of the most dangerous. Importantly, it was our aim to strike a tone that was reassuring, non-judgemental and factual. We also wanted to appeal to the natural desire to share information. And this all needed to be wrapped in an aesthetically pleasing, socially-oriented graphic.
The result was a set of six images in an editorial style sized for Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook stories that can be easily shared, have a positive message and put to rest common myths. Here’s what that looks like:
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A few small design flourishes finish the concept off. A serif font adds the perception of authority without the need to push sources to the forefront. Soft pastel colour schemes symbolise neutrality, allowing the images to present information that does not judge or seek to provoke. Subjects are presented in contexts that provide enough information to understand the scene but in overall minimal environments that help audiences substitute themselves into the situation, building empathy along the way.
Doing More, Donating
The second brief we responded to was to encourage more than the sharing information –active donations to the solution. In particular, the brief aims to promote the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which has been launched in partnership with the UN Foundation and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation. This fund allows individuals, organizations, and companies globally to donate to the WHO’s COVID-19 efforts. This new fund is the first and only way for individual donors and businesses to donate to WHO’s global response to this outbreak.
In approaching this message, we realised that to be successful we would need to make the act of donating as simple as possible, and closely align the action with existing behaviours. We also wanted to make use of the themes of national unity, coming together and positive British spirit. As such, we sought a theme for a shared challenge or moment that could be held on a recurring basis to encourage donation whilst benefiting from social amplification and collective participation. This resulted in the creation of The Right Good British Brew Round. Below is the suggested headline, body copy and concept notes for promotion of the campaign.
Headline: The Right Good British Brew Round
Body Copy: Calling all drinkers of tea, coffee and other hot beverages - we need you. Join the nation every Monday at 10am for a cuppa and a chat. Take a break, share your round with hashtag #BritishBrewRound, and donate the cost of your drink to The COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Your donation will help equip global healthcare staff with essential supplies, ensure patients get the care they need and accelerate efforts to develop vaccines, tests and treatments.
Concept Notes: A UK focused social campaign that taps into national pride, identity and strength – turning a national past time into a community effort to raise money for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. The campaign encourages individuals to take a small action that many already do, drinking tea/ coffee, and turn it into a collective, community driven social activity. To participate, individuals simply need to share their Monday morning 10am brew with the hashtag, and donate the regular cost of their drink to the fund.
To promote this campaign, we also produced an example social advert, which can be seen below.
Overall, we relished this opportunity to put our skills to use in a way that helps with an important global challenge – even if in just a small way. As of the date of publication, there is still just under a week to contribute to the UN’s open brief. We’d encourage any creatives and marketing teams to also get involved and support this crucial communications campaign.
You can view the full brief and submit contributions on the TalentHouse website. Be sure to check out the full guidelines and judging criteria before making any submissions.
