A tired advertising cliche that really winds me up is brands cluelessly exploiting street art and graffiti to try (and fail) to look cool. Seriously it’s tragic. Stop it.
As a published and exhibited graffiti artist, seeing brands co-opt graffiti for the edgy aesthetic has always struck me as lazy.
It’s become so prevalent now that it’s lost a lot of the impact and meaning so I’d only ever suggest it if it’s the right solution to the problem.
Centrepoint was one of those rare times:
“Dave, there’s no media budget”
Ha ha yeah heard that before how bad is it?
“No, seriously it’s a homeless charity. There is no budget.”
Oh. Right.
That Christmas, over 22,000 young people faced living on the streets. 22,000 people without a voice or a safe place to sleep.
The problem we needed to solve was that the youth audience that Centrepoint was set up to help were less and less aware of them.
Now, they might not be in a position to donate any money but they are digital natives and more so than previous generations, they are sincere in their desire to take action and make a positive change for their futures - be it protests, volunteering or online campaigning.
So how do you speak to them? Well first up you don’t get a creative with no personal experience of that kind of hardship to have a crack at trying to resonate with the yute dem…and you don’t blow a charity’s comms budget on a pretty film that everyone agrees will win some awards but doesn’t actually result in any positive change.
No, instead you present to a very nervous board of directors as you use phrases like:
“Easier to get forgiveness than permission”
“Bail contingency fund”
and “What kind of monster would sue a charity anyway?”
We also managed to complete the whole campaign without anyone throwing the term “guerrilla marketing” about, leaving it firmly in the early 2000’s where it belongs. You’re welcome.
To their eternal credit, Centrepoint were even more up for it than the band of artists and directors I had to beg favours from to turn this round in a matter of weeks in the depths of winter.
Taking genuine, moving testimonials from young people who had benefited from Centrepoint’s services and placing their silhouettes on the streets where they once spent the night gave them a voice and gave the target audience a relatable, recognisable cause to get behind.
This no-permission illegal takeover of the streets of London (or micro-budget OOH campaign if the lawyers are reading…) was the slap in the face we needed to give the public to grab their attention and kick start a movement by being provocative and confrontational:
#THE22000
WE WILL BE HEARD.
…and if we got arrested in the process then hey, who doesn’t love a bit of free press coverage?
Then, to make sure we got the digital attention of our target audience too, we built it into a social campaign and pulled in favours with influencers, fashion designers and pop stars to get signatures on the petition to help end youth homelessness and keep the conversation going (having Vivienne Westwood tweet my work might well be a career highlight).
We managed to get a load of earned coverage, thousands of signatures on an online petition and secured Centrepoint in the mind of young people so that they can continue their work for years to come.
Not too shabby for “no budget”.
Dir. Lyle Lindgren