The Wellcome Trust has launched a major new public engagement initiative that will try to get consumers exploring their changing relationship with food, and inspire people to seek a happier and healthier future.
The Crunch will reach a wide range of audiences across the UK throughout 2016, engaging with consumers in a number of different ways: more than 33,000 experiment kits will be produced and distributed to every school and further education college in the UK; interactive experiences for families will be put on, with the hope that they will reach more than 100,000 people both face to face and digitally; and a network of ambassadors will be developed to help deliver more grassroots activity.
The project’s name, brand guidelines, visual identity and messaging were created by design consultancy Blast, with digital agency Itineris contributing online and digital assets.
The Wellcome Trust marketing communications project manager Lynn Huynh said: “This is a significant new initiative, not only for The Wellcome Trust, but for the 15 project partners, and indeed for the UK as a whole. It was critical that we created a name, brand, visual identity and messaging that would unite all involved and become even more than the sum of its parts.
“More than this, The Crunch will encompass the entire UK, will last for all of 2016, and involves us communicating complicated topics to a very wide range of audiences, many of whom, for very valid reasons, do not have environment, nutrition and health as a high priority. So the name, look and feel needed to feel contemporary, relevant, and fun, allowing us to convey a serious message and inspire people to care about the issues.
“Right from the outset, Blast had a good grasp of what we were trying to achieve. They invested time to understand us, asked the right questions and the creative they produced demonstrated just the right balance of playfulness and seriousness that is so essential to The Crunch.”
Gallery: The Crunch’s new brand identity
The very name, The Crunch, was the first step in the project for Blast, as creative director Colin Gifford explained. “It needed to reach and inspire a wide range of audiences across multiple channels,” he said. “It needed to resonate as strongly and positively with both a four-year child and a food scientist. Our solution, The Crunch, encapsulates the essence of the initiative. Fun, foody and impactful, it also highlights that we’re at a crucial moment in which we need to reconsider our relationship with food and drink. So while The Crunch is playful and energetic, it also has a serious and thoughtful dimension. This versatility helps us engage with all our audiences, from children to foodies and policy makers.
“The logo is comprised of three overlapping circles which represent the connections between food, health and environment. In addition to the logo we’ve created a range of icons, infographics and illustrations, which give us a visual way to talk about the connections and communicate the variety of subjects covered by the initiative.”
The campaign’s “flexible identity” has been seen in a launch film created by Blast, while the agency has worked with Itineris to create a website and range of assets for social media. The first pilot session of the project begins in January with an official launch later in March, and activities throughout the year.
“Our stakeholders are responding very positively to the brand,” Huynh continued. “Even at this stage people are beginning to feel inspired by what we can achieve with The Crunch. We can’t wait for the next stage, and to bring even more people into this exciting and important conversation.”
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