ANDRASSYMEDIADESIGNFORCHANGE

Andrassy Media designs for change.

For over 16 years we have worked exclusively with non-profit and thirdsector organisations. Our clients work with diverse communities and areinvolved with education, health and social care, social housing, diversityand inclusion, social justice, the environment, heritage and the arts.

We create exciting, memorable and effective media solutions.

Working across the full spectrum of visual media, we are imaginative andtalented graphic designers, web developers, facilitators, copywriters,photographers and filmmakers.

Our specialism is communicating.

We are adept at communicating complex or challenging messages andissues, to diverse multi-stakeholder audiences.

Our work is about engaging, informing, celebrating, challenging,persuading.

We get to the heart of what you need to say, and find the best way to getyour message across – in print, online, at work, at home, in communities.

Get in touch to find out how we can help you >

We’re proud of the exciting work we’ve been able to dowith social landlords, using design and media to helpthem get closer to the diverse communities they serve.

The following case studies showcase three examples ofour work with RSLs.

We hope they give you food for thought.

And if they prompt you think about how you could useour creativity to address communications needs in yourorganisation, get in touch.

Everyone agreed that WulvernHousing’s corporate identity neededa refresh. What none of us was clearabout was: exactly why.

Having developed the company’s originalcorporate identity several years previously, we agreed that the existing visual system wasstruggling to express the organisation’sgrowing self-confidence and expanding role.

But until we found out how the organisationwas seen by its stakeholders, we couldn’t knowhow Wulvern should be addressing themthrough its brand.

When we carried out detailed research amongcustomers around the borough, unexpectedinsights came to light. Although it was nowseveral years since the organisation’sinception, many still thought of Wulvern as ‘partof the council’. There was a perceived distancebetween landlord and tenant, and sense that‘their interests are not the same as ours’.

These potentially damaging perceptions werein stark contrast to the organisation’s self-image, as a partner working alongside localpeople towards improving life and creatingsustainable neighbourhoods.

Our new brand now had a clear remit, to build abridge across this perceived divide and toreflect the reality in which social landlord,tenants and the wider community worktogether towards shared goals.

With this insight as our guide, we put localpeople at the heart of the new brand. They maybe customers, local community members, orWulvern staff – it really doesn’t matterbecause, whatever their relationship to theorganisation they are all on ‘the same side’.We created larger-than-life-size photographicportraits with key messaging through ‘speechbubbles’ as the principle device.As the brand was rolled out, they began to popup wherever Wulvern had a presence. Thesubjects of the portraits were never labelled.Everyone was mixed together; staff alongsidevolunteers, a tenant alongside the chiefexecutive. The inference was clear: all are partof the ‘home team.’One of Wulvern’s biggest assets in embeddingthe new brand was its fleet of white vans,which we recognised as a huge resource offree potential mobile billboards, and set aboutusing the hitherto blank spaces to carry the‘Wulvern People’ and their messages aroundthe borough.With vehicles, uniforms, literature, offices andshop premises in several towns, as well as asignificant online offering, Wulvern’s brand wasa complex, large-scale project. But by seeing beyond the complexities of thepractical application of the brand, to the biggerquestions of values and perceptions, AndrassyMedia enabled the company to tell its storyabout shared values to a community of which itis intrinsically a part.

Changing customer perceptionsthrough branding: the Wulvern rebrand

‘When wecarried outdetailedresearch amongcustomersaround theborough,unexpectedinsights came to light’

Impact•Wulvern’s image and perceived role in localcommunities changed rapidly, as the brand’s strongcommunity focus led to more targeted engagementwith local organisations.

• The new brand gave Wulvern a framework to activelymanage its reputation. Positive stories in the localpress began to appear where previously Wulvern hadbeen an easy target for negative reporting.

• A big increase in profile through the creative use ofbrand touchpoints (such as vehicles and shop fronts)helped differentiate the brand from the local authority.

• A flagship short brand film called ‘What we’re proudof’ involving dozens of staff, was shown at staffconference and had a huge impact on morale. Staffwere visibly moved to see and hear the contributionthey were collectively making.

• Several years on, the brand is as fresh as it was whenlaunched and still provides both the flexibility andemotional resonance to tell the company’s story.

Images: customers,community membersand staff all appearprominently in theWulvern brand.

Below: a Romamember of staffbecame ‘poster boy’ forWulvern’s ongoingsponsorship of localfootball clubs.

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Peaks and Plains Housing Trust was clear that it needed to turn itsattention to the local community. Butcould a report to announce the planwin over the community itself?

The organisation was close to fulfilling its stocktransfer promises regarding the improvementof its housing stock, and so was planning toturn its attention to wider questions ofneighbourhood sustainability. The report wouldrepresent the first time this strategic shiftwould be aired publicly.

However, in an area as economically diverse asMacclesfield, there was the very real possibilityof Peaks and Plains being viewed negatively for using its resources to support sociallydisadvantaged groups.

To overcome this, Andrassy Media proposedthat, rather than paying for the usual glossyannual review, greater value could be obtainedfrom engaging directly with local communities,making Peaks and Plains’ new outward-facingfocus more tangible – and in the processpersuading doubters of its value to the town as a whole.

So we designed and delivered a two-monthintensive campaign to engage with and seek theviews of local community groups and activists.

We secured opportunities to meet groups andinterview local people, getting to know themand gathering images, words and video thatbuilt up into a kaleidoscope of local views on“what community means to me.”

This ‘raw data’ was then incorporated into asuite of media – a publication, a travelling

Getting the community behinda new strategy: Peaks and Plains Housing Trust

exhibition, a short film, and so on – which werelaunched at Peaks and Plains tenants’conference.

The published material, resonant with localdiverse voices, was unusual in that nowhere wasPeaks and Plains’ official ‘position’ argued orset out in detail.

And yet this very absence of Peaks and Plains’own voice is what made the material soeffective – sending out a clear signal aboutorganisation’s desire to listen and respond tolocal priorities in shaping the area’s future.

The cost of the work was no greater than thetypical price of producing a high quality, glossyannual review and video.

But by reinventing a typical design and printproject as an opportunity to build relationshipsbetween landlord and community, we were ableto turn a cost into a genuine investment, and inthe process set the ball rolling for a new phasein the organisation’s future growth.

‘WOW – what a service – thanks toall involved at Andrassy Media forpulling out the stops!’Tim Pinder, CEO, Peaks and PlainsHousing Trust

Impact•A shift in strategic direction was givena major kick-start and helped set asuccessful path for the coming years.

• Active partnerships were developedwith several key communityorganisations in the town.

• A self-advocacy group of people withlearning disabilities offered to helpPeaks and Plains develop its disabilityawareness.

• A legacy of rich and stimulating mediamaterial for use in future engagementinitiatives.

Above: spreads from the reviewwhich was entirely composed ofcommunity views.

Left: a poster featuringcommunity responses to thetheme, used to stimulate furtherdebate around the town.

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When First Choice Homes Oldham(FCHO) managed to secure fundingto complete a new build project thathad languished unfinished since thecredit crunch, it was more thanhomes that needed rebuilding. In the intervening years, relationships betweenFCHO and existing tenants had becomeincreasingly strained, as people grew frustratedwith living next to a building site.

And even though residents were relieved to seework resume, the rapid enlargement of thecommunity that would follow completion wasalso causing anxiety.

Byron Green, a hitherto mainly monoethnicwhite community had in the past experiencedsome cohesion issues. Concerned at thepossible effect of increased diversity in thearea, FCHO decided to commission acommunity film project that could helpintegrate new residents into the estate and atthe same time improve FCHO’s relationshipwith its tenants.

Andrassy Media was selected to deliver theproject. Films would be made by residentsthemselves, providing an opportunity for localpeople to reflect on the changing nature of theirarea, and helping prepare the ground as more

culturally diverse residents moved in. Over a periodof a year we worked with local people, recruiting,training and supporting them throughout thecreative process, from early discussions throughto completion of the films.An older people’s group worked with young people,to make a piece about the history of the area, seenthrough a young person’s eyes.The children of local TRA members looked at antisocial behaviour, making their film in aninvestigative journalistic style.Meanwhile, recently arrived and long-standingresidents joined forces on a project making a‘Welcome DVD’ for newcomers into the community.At the end of the project, the finished films wereshowcased at ‘community celebration’ events. A lasting legacy was also secured in the form of afunded and constituted young people’s film group,allied to the local TRA. The group has sincedeveloped into a social enterprise providing itsfilmmaking services to agencies including FCHOand the community safety partnership.Place-shaping activity is sometimes delivered in atop-down manner. But by putting local residents atthe centre of the process, a more effective andsustainable kind of intervention could be delivered,in which empowerment and marketing merged tocreate a stronger and more positive community inByron Green.

Place shaping: community film makingin Oldham

‘Andrassy Media got our relationshipwith the local community back ontrack, at a time when residents wereheartily sick of living next to abuilding site for a number of years. The work they did to gentlychallenge preconceptions aboutdiverse communities moving into thearea was inspired. Using creativefilmmaking to ask difficult questionswas something we’d never donebefore – thank you Andrassy Mediafor giving us a new tool to work within our communities!’Kevin Clarke, First Choice HomesOldham

Impact•Successful transition to a more diversecommunity – tenantsreported high levels ofintegration betweendiverse residents.

• Increased trust between residents andFCHO customer-facing staff – positiverelationships forged while workingtogether on a fun, creative project.

• Renewed interest in the TRA whichhad begun to lose support amongresidents.

• Creation of a social enterprise foryoung people in the area with at leasttwo young people going on to pursuemedia education.

• Legacy of co-created marketingresources which are given to new orprospective residents.

Above and facingpage: the youngpeople’s film crew inaction

Left: interviewingKevin Clarke for theyoung people’s film

Get in touch >

Talk to usIf you have a specific piece of work in mind, or to discuss costs, get in touch with AndrassyMedia’s Business Development Manager Mick Shirazi:

Or call 01484 291198

Not sure what you’re looking for?

You don’t need to have a fully developedproject in mind before contacting AndrassyMedia. We’re happy to chat about your needs,and help to clarify what creatively could beachieved. Some of our most effective workhas developed from open-endedconversations such as these.

For a chat about possible creative solutionsfor less well-defined needs, contact Creative Director David Andrassy:

Or call 07973 620 636

mick@andrassymedia.co.uk

david@andrassymedia.co.uk

The Case Studies seriesThis booklet is number 7 in a seriesshowcasing Andrassy Media’s work.

If you’d like copies of any of the other bookletsin the series, get in touch.

Simply click to request a case study:

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