Marcus Rashford's campaign to end child food poverty began during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. After campaigning tirelessly against the government's decision to end its free meals programme a £120m summer food fund was finally agreed. The government also pledged a further winter fund that year and has since committed to further funds during the Easter, summer and Christmas breaks in 2021. Local charity, The Junction, were tasked with rolling out the 'Holiday Activities and Food' programme (HAF) across the Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland area.
The Junction were one of many charities across the country coordinating these activities for their local area. 1000s of places were available for eligible young people and children, all funded by The Department for Education. As well as offering a variety of enriching activities such as singing lessons, football or cooking skills, young people would also be provided with a healthy meal each day.
By working with us, The Junction were able to develop both the marketing strategy and a fresh, new campaign name and identity all at the same time, making the whole process streamlined and efficient. The marketing strategy was co-designed with young people through an interactive workshop which we designed and delivered. We discovered how they and their families lived their lives, what their priorities were and how often they used certain marketing channels.
The feedback from the workshop was really valuable in not only establishing how we went about creating the marketing strategy but how we created the look and feel of the campaign brand too.
The first and most obvious thing that needed addressing was the name - enrolling your child on a 'Holiday Activities and Food programme' doesn't exactly sound enticing! We renamed the offer to 'Xplore' and created an on-trend, illustrated theme for the campaign.
We created an information pack so that schools could find out a bit more about how the programme worked. Schools were in the perfect position to be able to identify those most in need so were targeted directly as part of the marketing activity. We wrote and designed a branded letter too that could be sent out to parents and guardians that told them more information about Xplore and how their child could benefit.We also designed a poster that could be displayed in schools to advertise the offer.
A bank of ready-made social media posts, along with a comprehensive 'how to' guide, made it easy for partners to advertise the offer on their own social media channels. We also wrote and distributed a press release to raise awareness amongst local communities.