My TIE Experience 2015

By Mike AlhadeffGrey London

In three words…Doing TIE was an extraordinary experience. It had a bit of everything. The odd mishap, the heat of Brazil (of course) and finally a sense of achievement

A bit of background

I’m Mike Alhadeff. Born and bred in Hackney. Planner at Grey London.

I decided to take up the TIE challenge because I wanted to try something different, explore new places and meet new people.

I was also interested to find out what impact communications might have outside of normal agency life.

In my spare time, I’m a passionate sports fan with a devotion to Manchester United.

A change of scene

Recife. North-East Brazil. State capital of Pernambuco.

Recife has a population of 1.5 million and is the fifth largest city in Brazil. It is the mix of the old and new with Recife Antigo alongside the tall modern sky scrappers of Boa Viagem.

In 2014, it hosted 5 matches during the FIFA World Cup.

It also has the longest stretch of urbanised beach front in Brazil.

All this 4600 miles away from London.

Back in the UK

The International Exchange isn’t just about packing your bags and whizzing off to a foreign land.

Before you leave they arrange for training so you can be best prepared for your project.

Janice McNamara provided development training to help me think about the challenges I faced in Brazil.

Fernando Britto provided a crash course in Portuguese to get to grips with some of the basics (essentially how to order a beer!)

Heidi Kikoler provided leadership coaching to help me think about the skills I needed to succeed in Brazil.

Jumping for money

Before my project could get off the ground…I had to jump out a plane.

As with any TIE Project, I was required to raise a budget. Without a budget, there would be nothing for production costs or media spend.

To do this, I launched Mike’s Nuts Week – a week of mad fundraising activity. It included a sponsored sky dive as well as selling packs of ‘my nuts’ in the office.

I used the fundraising platformhttps://fundrazr.com/uk/ to collect donations. It made it easy, safe and I could track how much I was raising.

In total I raised…

…a whopping £2102

Grey skies

With all the training complete and the money raised, I was finally ready to get the plane to Brazil.

Of course, this meant leaving a cold and wet London in February and replacing it with Brazilian sunshine.

But it also meant living on a different continent, experiencing a new culture and being surrounded by a language I barely understood.

It certainly was hot and bothersome at times but trips to the beach at weekends certainly helped.

What does a TIE project feel like?

Overall, it felt like the Olympic Downhill…

From day one, it felt like I was in the start gate for the Olympic Downhill. All the build-up, all the anticipation before arriving in Brazil.

But 4 weeks was an incredibly short amount of time. There was no stopping the momentum once you were out the gate. You had to take every turn, twist and bump as it came.

The experience was exhilarating!

A typical day…My time in Brazil was spent in a variety of ways. Some of it was similar to my life in the UK – from getting public transport to work presentations – but other parts were different like my time with the kids at LAR

My Team

Lar Rejane Marques

Lar Rejane Marques (LAR) is a small local charity based in Campo Grande, Recife.

They are a foster home which provides shelter, care and support to children with physical and mental disabilities as well their siblings.

They are supported by LAR as they have suffered domestic violence and abuse and have been referred to LAR by the Child Protect Council or a judge.

I selected to work with LAR because I wanted to help them with the particular challenges they faced.

The children at Lar Rejane Marques

INATA

Team INATA

INATA is an experimental advertising agency based at AESO University in Recife.

It is made up of advertising and marketing students who have the opportunity to work on live client briefs alongside professors with a wealth of industry experience.

It was my agency team for the duration of my project and would help me solve some of LAR’s challenges.

First day nerves

Arriving in a city half way round the world can be a bit of a culture short.

But before I started my work with LAR and INATA, I had an induction day organised by TIE facilitator Juliana Menucci.

It was my chance to introduce myself to everybody I would be working with during my project.

It was also an opportunity to start to understand the challenges involved in the project and how I might overcome them.First day nerves…meeting the team

The Brief

The Client Brief

Client name: Delza RiberioCharity: Lar Rejane MarquesAgency: INATA

‘We get donations in food, clothing etc…but we really struggle with a financial

shortfall’

‘We struggle to pay staff on time’

‘In the past we have been close to closing our doors’

The first thing I did was to receive the client brief from LAR’s coordinator, Delza Ribeiro.

It was a briefing with a difference as neither of us could speak each others respective languages. But luckily a couple of guys from INATA translated for me (I would rely them for the duration of the project.)

Delza was responsible for the day-to-day management of LAR, and along with a board of directors, they made all the decisions concerning LAR. They all had a influence on our response to the brief.

The Research

Responses from online Google survey

The World Giving Index 2014

After I had received the brief, the next stage was to undertake some research.

This was to further understand some of the problems LAR faced – it involved both desk research and qualitative research.

The World Giving Index highlighted the difficulties in asking for financial donations in Brazil.

Meanwhile, we used an online Google survey to ask people about disability in the Brazil.

We also hosted a focus group at AESO University with students.

Focus group at AESO

Important numbers…

90TH

45%

Brazil ranked 90th on the World Giving Index in 2014

45% of people surveyed didn’t like to talk about disability

Identified objectives

1

2

3

ATTITUDES: highlight the challenges faced by disabled people and challenge current attitudes

AWARENESS: Build awareness of LAR and what the organisation does

BUSINESSES: Help LAR recruit more donors and build a sustainable donor base

Splitting the brief

The Public

The Corporates

We needed to target the local population in Recife, raising awareness of LAR and the issue of disability. By increasing the profile of disability and what LAR did as an organisation, we hoped to increase the conversation around disability and make people feel more comfortable about it.

We needed to target local businesses in Recife in order to increase the potential pool of donors available to LAR. Targeting businesses increased our chances of getting the financial donations needed.

In order to meet the objectives we identified, we decided to split the brief in two so different parts of the campaign would target the relevant objective

The Strategy

LAR

Society

Society

The focus was on supporting LAR, but we felt it was equally important to maintain an outward perspective.

We needed to address some of the challenges disabled people experienced in Brazilian society as a way of helping LAR itself.

By doing both, we recognised it would be mutually beneficial. If there were better attitudes towards disability, more people might support LAR. And it was important for LAR to play a wider role in society to encourage better inclusion of people with disabilities.

A change of approach

Charity Family

Donation Investment

Help Growth

We wanted to reframe the position of LAR in order to encourage support and reflect it’s role in society

The Insight

Brazil is one big family

The Public

The Corporates

By splitting the brief in two, we had to address two different audiences.

But we needed to find an insight that could work for both.

During my time in Brazil, I noticed the importance of family in Brazilian culture. It also reflected the culture I found at LAR.

We used it to drive both briefs – society needed to act as a ‘family’ to make it stronger and more supportive while corporates were in a position to provide support when needed.

The Idea

The key visual

We developed an idea which shaped what we wanted to communicate.

To bring the idea of ‘family’ to life, we were inspired by the world of the bee. Bees live in a society where each bee has a role and they all help support each other in the colony. This idea of supporting each other, whether speaking to the public or corperates, was key to the future success of LAR.

We were also inspired by the hexagonal shape which makes up each bee hive. The way they interconnect makes a larger, super strong structure. Similarly, it was important for LAR to build connections to help it’s future.

The Public CampaignThe key role for this part of the campaign was to encourage people to talk about disability. Encouraging conversation was key to understanding the issues

People don’t want to talk about

disability

Are unaware of the issues face by disabled people

Need to start the conversation so

people can begin to understand the

issues

Awareness filmWe launched an awareness film which featured disabled people talking about their experiences of disability and hopefully encouraging others and society to do the same

(Click the rectangle to open the film on your browser)

Outdoor mediaThis was supported by outdoor media

BusdoorBillboard

SocialAs a key element of this campaign was to get people talking, we used social media to inspire conversation with the hashtag VamosBuzzSobreslsso (letsbuzzaboutit)

LAR Facebook page

Facebook posts

The Corporate Campaign

We created a corporate donor club to target local business.

By providing a structured layer of giving, we hoped it might make it easier for people to donate. We hoped it would make it more manageable and importantly help transparency.

We created three layers of giving – food, clothing etc., sponsoring bills and financial donation – and attached rewards to each layer. This was designed to make everyone feel part of LAR and hopefully incentivise increased giving.

We also created a press pack to excite the press about LAR’s new campaign and the upcoming Gala Dinner.

Brochure: Explaining the corporate donor club

Press kits

The Dinner

The corporate donor club was launched in May during LAR’s Gala Dinner.

This was a massive movement for LAR as they hosted several important figures, including senior local politicians and influential business leaders in Recife.

It was the perfect opportunity to showcase LAR’s new campaign alongside explaining how the corporate donor club worked.

As part of the event, we handed out mini honey pots to guests as a way of providing a little reminder about the campaign and what it hoped to achieve.

The presentation…and coverage in the press

How the campaign all worked together

Corporates (CEOs) Society

Demonstrate the value in investing in LAR

Starting the conversation about

disability

SUPPORTING THE LAR CAUSE

Supporting society is good for business

Raising awareness of the challenges faced by disabled people

Press PlayDuring a 4-week project, we went from receiving a brief, research, conceiving and then developing a campaign. Here it is condensed into two minutes

(Click the rectangle to open the film on your browser)

The Results

‘The campaign is taking Lar to a new level of awareness than we ever had before. This new interest from the society comes in the form of donations of products and services. A lot of people are calling to visit Lar, to organize parties to the children and spend time with them. In terms of money, there aren't many spontaneous donations - but we now have greater access to ask’

Delza Ribeiro, Coordinator, Lar Rejane Marques

Myself and Delza in Olinda

The Wins

New internal thinking

It’s quite easy to think ‘how we can engage the outside world?’, but of course this all has to start from within an organisation. If they start thinking differently, then you can start talking to the outside world differently.

Increased public interest

Increased media interest

As the quote from Delza demonstrates, the campaign has definitely helped broaden the awareness of LAR in Recife. This has come from both public interest as well the media generating stories around LAR.

The Losses

Social media

FinancialDonations

There was always a disconnect between what I envisaged in comparison to LAR. They used it to post long messages asking for support/help, something which was incredibly valuable to them and I didn’t necessarily disagree with, but I wondered if it was the right forum. It was always going to be difficult with the lack of a social media manager.

Getting more to donate financially. This was always going to be a difficult challenge to meet in a country where charity is seen very differently. So far, this has proven difficult to change.

One of the best parts about a TIE experience is the way it brings together different groups of people – you, the charity and the local ad agency. It’s genuinely a great dynamic. However it doesn’t mean that there can’t be certain teething problems between different groups which I could have managed better.

Relationships

What did I learn?

Resilience

Disability

Communications

This project is all about overcoming challenges. A new environment, the heat and language barrier all present their own challenges. Sometimes it was about adapting or finding a path forward when the path ahead appeared to be blocked. These were some of the most rewarding moments.

One of the reasons I selected LAR to work with is because one of the clients I work with in the UK is Scope. As both are charities with a focus on disability, it was interesting to see how much overlap there might be. One of the main points of similarity related to how people found it difficult to talk about disability and consequently thinking about ways to overcome this.

One of TIE’s aims is to take the world of communications outside of normal agency life. How can our thinking help some of the challenges the world currently faces? It is clear we can’t solve these challenges on our own but it is certainly clear we can help influence and challenge people’s thinking.

The Future

I learnt a tremendous amount during my time on TIE.

Using my skills outside the normal agency setting was rewarding and it was a privilege to try and help LAR.

Hopefully they have some new thinking and materials which they can use to increase support in future. Importantly, I hope they will be able to find some more financial sponsors.

I will, of course, be watching from afar and will be happy to help if and when I can.

Myself and Delza…the work continues

Thank YouThis entire experience wouldn’t have happened alone. Massive thanks go to everyone who gave me a helping hand along the way.

But to pick out few.

The International Exchange and Philippa White who have developed a wonderful initiative and made the whole thing possible in the first place.

Everyone I met in Recife who were great to work with and helped make my time there amazing.

Sarah Jenkins and Bill Scott who brought The International Exchange to Grey London. And Lisa Franklin for making sure I actually got to Brazil!

Grey London who dug deep into their pockets and provided encouragement every step of the way.

And Finally…

Beware…a Brazilian beach

The odd mishap referred to at the beginning? Well…

It is an x-ray of my left hand.

It turns out beaches don’t have as softer landing as one might expect. My third metacarpal now testifies to this fact.

Particularly unfortunate if you are due on a flight back to the UK in under four hours.

Another lesson learnt.