Campaign
Strategy
Challenge
The Mayor of London wanted to put a message out that London is an open and welcoming city, that anyone from any background can call their home. As Britain geared up to exit the European Union in 2019, the campaign also served immigrants who were worried and uncertain about their future, directing them to an information hub with resources to help make the process of applying for settled status easier.
The campaign was revived following the end of the American occupation of Afghanistan, which led to a huge increase in the number of Afghan refugees looking for safety elsewhere. In response, the Mayor of London launched a support fund to enable refugees to build a new life in London.
The campaign featured out-of-home displays around London’s transport network, and other prime locations across the city including Piccadilly Circus and Tower Bridge, as well as non-traditional out-of-home placements, broadcast and on-demand video ad spots.
Approach
For the duration of the campaign project, I worked as part of a team of designers, copywriters and photographers. We introduced the slogan ‘We are all Londoners’ to provide a defiant and unifying message for all Londoners. We kicked off the campaign with floor vinyls placed strategically across Underground stations in areas with the largest European communities. A community advice roadshow providing vulnerable European Londoners with information on their immigration rights took place from a double-decker bus which we bedecked in our campaign slogan translated into all 24 official languages of the EU.
The campaign ran for over six months and had a huge impact, with the launch video generating well over 1m views, and reaching nearly 4m Londoners via out of home advertising over 2 weeks. The roadshow provided over a thousand EEA+ nationals and their families with free face-to-face advice and support over four days.
To coincide with the launch of the Mayor’s response fund for Afghan refugees, I created some quick text animations displayed on digital screens across the city with a message welcoming refugees translated into Dari and Pashto – the two most widely spoken languages in Afghanistan.
