Modernizing a 100-year-old charity
United Way BC
Brand Platform
Tactical Campaigns
When United Way BC contacted Here Be Monsters, they had just gone through a lot of change. All of their regional chapters had been brought under one provincial banner, and now they needed their brand and tactical campaigns to get to a better place.
Period Promise
The first tactical project was for United Way’s Period Promise, an annual campaign that tackles period poverty by generating awareness, collecting product and monetary donations, and, developing new policies with provincial branches of government. A necessary cause given 18% of people who menstruate have missed school, 22% have missed work and 29% have missed community because they couldn’t afford or find access to menstrual products.
Our creative strategy to link these missed events to period products led us to a creative idea that hit close to home. Marketing.
Here Be Monsters made bold new claims about tampons, pads and cups to upstage the claims already made in the menstrual product industry. They’re not just ultra-thin or comfortable, they also save jobs, keep students in school and help with mental health.
Posters, social posts, digital display ads and pre-roll videos all appeared to be typical menstrual product ads, but were stickered on top with the benefits that help overcome period poverty. And just before Menstrual Hygiene Day, elected officials and media received packs of pads and tampons featuring our bold claims.
Bold messaging was mailed to elected officials and the media on packages of period products.
United Way’s Period Promise had its best year ever. We amassed over 142,000 organic impressions, leading to an impressive 37% increase in donations year-over-year. Put into perspective, these 700,000 donated period products are enough to lift over 58,000 people out of period poverty for a year - helping them stay in school, go back to work or keep an appointment or community event.
Brand Platform
United Way BC is one of a kind in our province. Their approach to charity is diverse and their reach is wide, everyone can help or benefit from United Way BC. It’s their combined efforts that make our communities strong and vital. The brand platform had to reflect all of this. For that reason, we developed something we call Here. For each other.
Strategically, our goal was to increase the public’s familiarity with UWBC activities. Creatively, we needed to rein in their brand tools and focus their writing and design to be undeniably United Way.
It was a tricky needle to thread. It had to be simple, flexible and bold. The kind of idea that not only Here Be Monsters could use, but a junior social media manager sitting 600 km away, and an executive in the Comms department could activate too.
The simple headline structure keeps all of the branded communications on task. The design system was direct and focused on what mattered most. And together, the brand platform allowed all team members and agencies to express better how United Way BC builds strong vital connections in our communities.
