Journal

Meet Felicity - Together Trust

Together Trust is a charity providing special education, residential services, fostering, family support and community services. The charity commissioned our film team to showcase the positive impact their Newbridge service can make to people aged 18 to 30 and their families.

We were delighted to work with the amazing Felicity and her family to find out more about how the Together Trust is supporting people, providing a diverse range of services and making a real difference to their quality of life. The film was used for a fundraising ball and for online promotional use. 

Watch the film

The Anne Frank Trust UK

We’ve been working with the education charity The Anne Frank Trust UK over the last year on some of their key communications materials, including an animation to promote their Ambassador programme.

The charity uses Anne's life and diary to educate and empower young people to challenge all forms of prejudice and discrimination. Some are trained by the charity to become Anne Frank Ambassadors, and go on to spread Anne's message of social justice and equality for all in their schools, local communities and online.

The animation tells the story of Sam – a bespoke illustrated character – who brings to life the Ambassador journey and the key learning it instills: that everyone is equal and your voice can make a difference – no matter who you are or where you’re from.

Watch the animation

Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy events

We have been involved in some inspiring events this month – showcasing some of our clients’ fantastic work, and sharing our insights. 

Earlier in March we joined Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy (whose website we were proud to design, develop and launch earlier this year) at the Stoller Hall in Manchester, for their Northern Lights Conference. During the weeks leading up to the conference, we teamed up with AFP to mentor a number of organisations, as they prepared to pitch for seed funding for their organisation. On the day, our Managing Director, Chris Dessent, spoke to the 150-strong audience, sharing insights around the power of storytelling for organisations seeking funding. 

Then on 25th March, we were back down in London with the Institute of Fundraisers, as part of their annual conference on digital fundraising. A great chance to showcase our wide range of charity fundraising campaigns, we were thrilled to be part of this major event in the IoF’s calendar. 

Lakes International Comic Art Festival competition

We are once again very excited to be working with the Lakes International Comic Art Festival team to promote another weekend festival, showcasing the best comic art from creators around the globe, in the Lake District town of Kendal in October.

One of the feature events at the festival this year is a special Hellboy exhibition, curated by artist Duncan Fegredo. To coincide with the exhibition, we are working with the festival to coordinate a student competition – HELL OF A COMIC ART CHALLENGE.

A tribute to Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, a loveable horned half-demon, students are challenged to create their own new character who despite emerging from the hellish heat and fury of the underworld is, like Hellboy, a cool force for good.

The competition is now open for entries so if you know any budding artists or comic art enthusiasts!

Find out more

Together Trust fostering campaign

We are proud to be working with Together Trust, an amazing charity providing support and care for 3,700 vulnerable young people and adults across the North West.

We are currently working to support the charity to recruit foster carers. Foster carers provide safe, caring homes for children who need them and our campaign is showcasing how brave and brilliant foster carers really are. Being a foster carer is rarely given the recognition it deserves and our campaign is a celebration of how important they are.

The campaign is currently running across programmatic and social media advertising.

See the full story

BREATHE - North-East air quality campaign

The issue of air quality gained national attention in the headlines last year and sanctions have been imposed on local authorities as part of the Government's efforts to reduce traffic-related pollution in the form of nitrogen dioxide emissions across the country.

We worked with three councils in the North East on a creative campaign highlighting the issue of air quality and raising awareness of potential measures that will be put in place in Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside, to ensure the new Government targets are met.

The creative was accompanied by a raft of messages used primarily on the council social media channels. A phase of initial engagement took place towards the end of 2018 and the campaign will continue into 2019 with a public consultation beginning soon.  

Social Media trends of 2019

 

Keeping up to date with the latest consumer, market, social and ethical trends is essential for any organisation hoping to thrive in their industry. And that’s why here at Creative Concern, we’re looking ahead to what we expect the biggest sustainability and social trends will be in 2019!

Online and social trends can change in a matter of minutes but until the next phase is invented, here are Creative Concern’s top 5 trend predictions for 2019.

 

Read our social media trend predictions for 2019

Topics to watch in 2019

You may have already read our sustainability trend predictions for the coming year, but we couldn't stop there, here are Creative Concern's final five topics to look out for in 2019!

Read our topics to watch in 2019

“The trends that are shaping the 21st Century world embody both promise and peril.” ~ Klaus Schwab

A reflection on 2018 trends and Creative Concern’s predictions of the sustainability and social trends that will dominate 2019.

After Attenborough’s imploring final words in Blue Planet II in 2017, “The future of humanity, and indeed all life on earth, now depends on us”, 2018 seemed to witness ethical living and more conscious consumption hit the mainstream as consumers on mass started to take notice of their usage, and tweeted about it. 

Documentaries, such as wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin’s Drowning in Plastic hit the headlines, and hit home. And add to this the steady rise and education of veganism and, of course, the mass outcry when the nation opened their cupboards and realised palm oil seemed to be a previously undetected ingredient in so many of the items residing inside. All in all, 2018 challenged the public’s ethical integrity on a large scale.

However, despite widely discussed efforts – single use plastic bag usage has reportedly dropped by 85% since the 5p charge was introduced and there’s been an estimated 30% drop in plastic bags on the seabed over this time – 2018 still saw global carbon emissions jump to an all-time high.

Keeping up to date with the latest consumer, market, social and ethical trends is essential for any organisation hoping to thrive in their industry. And that’s why here at Creative Concern, we’re looking ahead to what we expect the biggest sustainability and social trends will be in 2019.

 

Read our top 5 sustainability trends for 2019

Creating a sustainable healthcare masterplan

We’ve enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust over the years, developing their Green Heart behaviour change branding and associated campaigns, and supporting the sustainability team with a wide range of communications.

Our latest project saw us working with the team at MFT and Hillbreak to support the development of the Trust’s new sustainability strategy, known as The Masterplan. 

As the biggest acute Trust in the UK, we all had lofty ambitions for this strategy. It was crucial the first step should be to consult with the Trust’s diverse staff base to understand what the Trust’s sustainability goals and objectives should be – and how the Trust could lead the field.

Using our combined knowledge of sustainability reporting and governance in the healthcare sector and beyond, we worked alongside Trust staff to develop The Masterplan: Making Sense of Sustainable Healthcare, 2018-2023, which has already been deemed by NHS Improvement (NHSI) as exemplar. We look forward to supporting the Trust further with promotional activity relating to this strategy.

You can read the strategy here.

Frontline Care: Saving the NHS?

Focused Care is a model of care revolutionising the NHS. It works alongside GP practices in Greater Manchester to assist patients who have complex needs such as homelessness, long term illnesses, substance misuse and domestic violence.

Creative Concern has worked with the team at Focused Care and ITV Shiver for a number of months on a 30-minute television programme that followed two Focused Care workers, Ruth Chorley and Lisa Chattington, as they helped their patients to rebuild their lives.

The programme Frontline Care: Saving the NHS? was aired by ITV Tonight in November and was watched by 2.5 million viewers.