Most challenges, you can’t see…

The Mix is a charity providing essential support for under 25’s, from anxiety to exam stress. The charity tailors their tone of voice and social content to 16-25 year olds through a no filter, open language which has helped them with their large Instagram following on 41k+. The Mix is the charity for young people, by young people, with 35 staff members and 200 volunteers, 85% of which are under 35, this is also supported by the charity having a youth advisory board of 16-25 year olds. They have created an online community through their forums where they can seek support from their peers in/with similar situations, they can also access a free confidential helpline and counselling services. The Mix recently partnered with the Prince and Princess of Wales, together with The Royal Foundation and with the support of BBC Radio 1 – working together, hosting a forum to challenge stigmas around mental health.

The majority of support and donations to the charity come from friends, family and corporate sponsors, who tend to be 25+. The Mix engaged with Silverback® to support their objective to communicate and raise awareness to a wider audience (the media, other parents and the corporate sponsorship market), as this is the one area they struggle to raise funds, competing with high profile and niche organisations. Throughout this project Silverback® helped The Mix to refine their identity, tone of voice and strategy to target this audience, leading a workshop and executing an impactful campaign to get noticed, raise awareness and help with donations.

Silverback® hosted a discovery workshop to really get under the skin of the charity, get to know who they are, what they care about, what their objectives and challenges were and where they want to be. Through research of their forums and from conversations with the charity, we developed a concept that reveal ‘hidden messages’ in day to day conversations. This visualises the tagline alongside of ‘Most challenges, you can’t see’. The tone of voice of the message is positioned as if it was coming from a parent, guardian, teacher or friend, a brush-off phrase about the sufferer which then highlights their challenge. The series of designs all take on The Mix’s identity but have been tailored to appeal to the wider audience, by just using one colour to simplify and put the main focus on the copy.

In addition to 8 animations for social media, we also created posters to visualise how the campaign would look as static graphic. The designs were then evolved and implemented in to a corporate presentation to help strike charity partnerships with like-minded organisations. Through the use of infographics, graphics and imagery incorporating some tailored hidden messages to create impact, the presentation became more engaging and informative helping them with fundraising.

The Mix were so grateful for the support from Silverback® and the campaign, which created a powerful impact across social media and to their fundraising. The campaign raises awareness of taboo issues which young people face, keeping their ‘no filter’ ethos intact. We have really enjoyed getting to know and working with The Mix, an amazing charity helping young people.