Westminster City Council spends more than £6m per annum on homelessness and support services for homeless people. It works closely with many of the charities in the area to ensure that there is a co-ordinated solution to maximise the effectiveness of the resources available.
As the Executive Creative Director of Westco Communications, Westminster Council asked me to work with there strategy team on a campaign that would change the way people felt about the rough sleeping problem in the city, and encourage the public to donate to the services, rather than give money to beggars.
People in Central London are unlikely to be shocked by images of rough-sleepers in adverts. They see them everyday in the streets. So what we needed to do was come up with new ways of creating empathy.
My idea was to tell the stories of those who worked with homeless people and rough-sleepers. These were stories I had not heard told before, and would bring something new to the conversation. They are the heroes of this story, doing work they are passionate about in very difficult circumstances. The narrative would also emphasise that all the charities and support organisations are working together. So it doesn't really matter which organisation you donate to, the same people are helped. To bring this to the forefront we called them ‘The Hidden Network’.
I directed the team to come up with a graphic device that could be used to illustrate the 'joining together’ of the different people and organisations. This could be used on posters and video endframes.
In order to get the stories, I worked with Westminster City Council staff to identify possible interviewees working for either the council’s services or the charities. I then met with them and got their stories off-camera. I wrote treatments and organised the shoot-team based on what I had been told. We made three films in total, each around 3-minutes long. The stories were powerful and produced just the empathy and emotion I had hoped. Throughout the process we put safeguarding at the top of our agenda, only speaking to previously homeless people on camera, who had the capacity to make a fully-informed decision.
Poster
Leaflet
Social slide
As well as posters, social media assets and videos, we created leaflets and card wallets for distribution at brand-to-hand events.
Working with TAP London, we created artwork that would allow TAP machines to be located behind windows for on-street giving. McDonalds and Pret a Manger were amongst the companies to sign up. Many smaller shops and cafes signed up for counter-top TAP machines to be installed.