Challenge  Some time ago I worked in a graphic design company, and we were asked to redesign some  posters for a charity. The charity was one of the oldest and best known in the country, but  their market dominance had been challenged in recent times by competition from several  new NGOs. The executives were set in their ways; they employed the same tactics and  messaging for every marketing campaign. They wanted to stay with the ‘safe’ option - the  one which had worked for them for years - even though they were losing their core audience  to the fresh new competition. They were firm believers that the information had to be  presented in a specific way in order to honor the cause. We were tasked with coming up with  a marketing campaign which could regain strength and position within the market.    Selection  In order to speak to all audiences we decided we needed to tell a story. As expressed by  Billy Salinas in the ​Storytelling Tool​ video in Week 2 of this course, we had to create a  cause which people could easily understand and buy into. We realized we had to find the  right story, and the right way to tell it, in order to re-engage the customers and give the  charity executives the confidence to do something different.     Application  We started by looking at the most recent campaigns, including the core messaging and the  results generated. We saw that the messaging was often quite complex, dealing with hugely  emotive topics and language which was largely unaccessible. These campaigns did not  perform as well as expected on the street with customers. In fact, many customers were put  off by the complexity of the messaging. We fully immersed ourselves in the data and tried to  find the simplest ways to re-present it. This was very challenging as there was a danger of  oversimplifying these important messages, which could put off our internal stakeholders. We  needed their complete buy-in if we were to be successful.     In our research we came across some useful data, which we were able to break down into  very easily understandable actions. We brought in a designer who was briefed to illustrate  these steps in a visual language which was complementary to the existing language, but had  a more human focus. We simplified the customer’s journey using written language they  could understand, without alienating our internal executives.     Insight  Our insights came directly from our data. We discovered that relating the work of the charity  to an everyday action by the man/woman on the street, was getting right to the heart of the  cause. We asked the audience to (for example) think of the time it takes to brush their teeth,  and what else could be done in that time. We made the abstract campaign ideas something  which could be explained simply. We used infographics which cut down on the amount of  text used. We related the complex to the everyday.     The eureka moment for our team was realizing that we had to capture the ​hearts and minds  of the internal and external stakeholders, not simply reinterpret a complex message. With  open minds we were able to discover something so simple in the data which was essentially

the emotional core of our story. Once this had been found the rest of the project could be  envisaged and created without hesitation - the rest of the story told itself.    We brought our ideas to the executives the next day and they were on board instantly. The  campaign was rolled out and generated more funding in the first month than their previous  five campaigns.    Approach  I have often thought since: were we just lucky to come across this story, or would we have  been as successful had we employed another approach? What was needed in this instance  was a story to bring together the separate stakeholders, and make something easy to  understand. We didn't start with a solution in mind, and difficult as it was, we refrained from  jumping to the end of the story before we had begun. This was design thinking before I knew  what design thinking was.     I believe that we could have come to a very different conclusion had we workshopped with  the executives and separately with a customer focus group. If we used mind mapping we  may have found other ways to satisfy both audiences that we had not considered. But I am  satisfied that our approach was right for this project, and it opened my eyes to the  possibilities that present themselves when we allow them time and space.

