Member Article

Flow animates anti-poverty video for Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Trussell Trust campaign

Flow - the purpose-led animation and branding studio - has been appointed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Trussell Trust to create the lead brand animation video for their joint ‘Guarantee Our Essentials Campaign’.

The national charities’ awareness campaign, which aims to highlight the urgent need to increase Universal Credit from £85 to at least £120 a week, has received over 100,000 views online since launching under a week ago. The amount was calculated through research as the minimum required for an unemployed single adult to be able to afford the essentials, like to eat, heat their home, keep clean and use the bus.

Manchester-head quartered Flow, who won the work following a competitive pitch, created a 90 second animation for use by the charities’ owned channels (Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram) as well as still images for its formal report.

The video animation and script were created by Flow in a character focused design style to help convey humanity and relatability to encourage people to get behind the charities in calling on the Government to ‘guarantee our essentials’ - the campaign’s main goal.

Karl Doran, founder and creative director at Flow, said: “Working on cause-led campaigns is a huge part of what we do as a studio - over the years we’ve come to specialise in charity and public sector communications. We were delighted to work with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Trussell Trust - two national charities doing fantastic work. Poverty levels are increasing at a frightening rate, so it’s vital the Government increases Universal Credit so that those most affected can get through it.

“For this film, we’ve tried to convey that message in a human yet practical way, showing the people dealing with the reality of trying to balance the expense of life’s essentials to show it really could happen to any of us. Sadly, a job loss, relationship breakdown or health concern may be just around the corner for any of us, so you never know when you may need financial support.

“We created a visual style that felt contemporary and bold, using the brand colours from the campaign. The character design is playful but minimal, so as not to distract from the message of the film, but has enough detail to allow the expression of emotion. We used a combination of keyframed and frame by frame animation, animating at eight frames per second, which gives a lo-fi, cut and paste feel to the animation that almost looks like stop motion. We also had to visually show the reality of what the basic rate for Universal credit could buy - not very much. The end result is a film that feels relatable and human, but also quite practical in its aim.”

Flow has experience of delivering purpose-led campaign work having previously worked with The Mental Health Foundation, BBC Children in Need and the Syria Relief Fund.

Maddy Moore, campaigns and public affairs manager at Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “Flow has brought our campaign’s key message, that no one in one of the wealthiest countries in the world should have to go without the essentials, to life. Their work has helped demonstrate clearly how it is time to build a system that is needs-tested – where the support people get is linked to the actual costs of essentials. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Trussell Trust are pleased to work together with Flow to deliver this message in a simple but hard-hitting way that has clearly struck a chord on social media where many people have said they’re astonished to learn how low the basic rate of Universal Credit actually is.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucy Yates .