Project

RBF Hidden Hardships Creative Campaign

Project

RBF Hidden Hardships Creative Campaign

Client

Railway Benefit Fund

Industry

Third Sector

Services

Highlighting hidden hardships

Services

The Railway Benefit Fund, also known as RBF, is a charity that provides support to current, former and retired railway staff and their dependents across the UK. Through Porterbook, the RBF approached us to come up with a campaign that would create awareness around the charity and grow regular giving/donations from inside and outside of the industry.

The ‘Hardships Can Be Invisible’ campaign highlights the importance of the RBF’s work and encourages the rail community to support the work that the RBF does to make a real difference in people’s lives. This includes covering essential costs like food, heating, and rent, providing free debt and legal advice through a partnership with expert advisors, offering additional helpful information and support services, and supporting initiatives that promote financial wellbeing and resilience.

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The heartbeat

Hardships can be invisible

Despite their dedication and hard work, many railway workers silently struggle with financial and emotional difficulties. Pride and stigma can often prevent individuals from seeking the help they need. Our idea focused on highlighting the unexpected challenges faced by many railway workers each day. We want to make those sometimes hidden hardships visible through the campaign, promoting empathy for colleagues both past and present.

A crucial focus of this campaign was to represent the workers who make up the RBF community. So we chose to build the campaign on the basis of photographic media, capturing these characters and highlighting the strength of those enduring hardship, standing bold and proud to be part of the railway industry.

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Highlighting the hardships

Illustration became a way to represent the unseen struggles faced by members of the RBF community, emulating how one’s hidden hardships intertwine with day-to-day functionality.

Minimal line work was used to depict the subject of the photography in positions of despair, expressing the hardships they may be carrying.

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Campaign toolkit

The campaign was delivered over a range of channels, including social media, website assets and printed rail ads. Therefore, our considerations within design hinged on the applicability of the design composition to these varied formats.

Responsive designs were developed to account for the context of the delivery of the project whilst maintaining clear communication for the campaign’s messaging and visuals.

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Results

The campaign was a success both in terms of gaining more donations and regular giving, but also in terms of providing a wide range of assets for the RBF to utilise in ongoing comms, ensuring that vital funds were spent on the people within the railway that need it most.

It was an absolute pleasure to work in collaboration with the RBF and Porterbrook to create a campaign that helped those in need through empathetic messaging, bold location-based photography, real people and standout visuals to help to make a difference.