Macmillan runs a wide range of fundraising products, and across this body of work, the studio’s task wasn’t to invent the fundraising idea. Macmillan had already settled on the concept. The job was to turn that concept into messaging and design that people would genuinely respond to, rather than another ask that blends into the background.
The challenge
Each project stood alone, with its own audience, its own moment and its own competition for attention, a seasonal lifestyle challenge competing for space in a crowded calendar, an everyday product like a card or a gift needing to earn a second look on a shelf or in an inbox. With no shared campaign architecture to lean on between projects, every one needed its own proposition and tone built from scratch, while still reading unmistakably as Macmillan.
Several of these products also spanned multiple touchpoints, from posters and print collateral through to packaging and cards, so the messaging had to hold together and adapt without losing its edge. Getting the tone right mattered more than usual given the subject matter, warm and human, without ever tipping into anything heavy-handed.
The requirements
- Campaign development
- Copywriting
- Creative direction
- Artwork
The process
Because each project arrived with the fundraising concept already agreed, our work began at proposition, translating a concept, whether a seasonal challenge or a physical product, into a message that would make someone want to take part, not just comply.
From proposition, we moved straight into copy and creative treatment together, developing headlines and body copy that carried the right tone for each product, then building the design application around that copy rather than treating the two as separate jobs.
Where a product spanned multiple touchpoints, we adapted one creative idea consistently across formats, so it read as a single coherent piece of communication wherever a supporter encountered it, in print, in an out of home site, or in their hands.
On every project, we delivered finished artwork, meaning what we produced was ready to go straight into production without further creative development needed at Macmillan’s end.
The solution
Across this series of projects, this way of working, taking a concept Macmillan already had and carrying it through copy, creative and artwork, has produced fundraising products spanning the breadth of Macmillan’s activity, from seasonal lifestyle campaigns to everyday products like cards and gifts.
Each piece of work was commissioned on its own, but together they show a consistent standard applied project to project, a proposition that lands, a tone that fits Macmillan and its supporters, and artwork finished to a standard that needed no further work before it went to market.
It’s a way of working that leaves Macmillan free to focus on the fundraising strategy itself, confident that whatever concept they bring, the messaging and creative that follows will be in safe hands.
Would you like to see results like these for your organisation?
If you’re interested in finding out more about how we could work together, send us a message and we’ll get back to you.
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Here’s a look at some of our most recent and relevant work, projects that show what we do, how we think, and the impact we’ve helped create for our clients.
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Macmillan
Brining a series of fundraising products for Macmillan Cancer Support to life.
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Doctors with Africa CUAMM
Repositioning Doctors with Africa CUAMM for Anglophone audiences around partnership, credibility and long-term impact
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Gov Facility Services Limited (GFSL)
Five years of campaigns and corporate documents for the team keeping prisons across the South of England running.
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NHS Highland Charity
Transforming Highland Health Board Endowment Fund into NHS Highland Charity, building a clearer charity brand to strengthen local support for health and care
