Innovation isn't always about technology. Sometimes it's about going left when the world goes right. For Oxfam Novib, we challenged the conventional approach to humanitarian communication by developing a brand campaign that prioritized authentic human connection over traditional shock tactics.
The Challenge
Oxfam had historically relied on either typical NGO trauma imagery or generic illustrations to communicate their mission. The question we faced was fundamental: how do we tell a more human story and give it a genuinely human face? How do we move beyond the tired formulas that have numbed audiences to the very causes that need their attention most?
Strategic Evolution
What initially began as a brief for a single TV commercial evolved through our strategic process into a comprehensive campaign ecosystem. After thorough strategizing, we developed a cinematic teaser, an out-of-home poster campaign, OOH motion graphics, radio spots, and television commercials.
This expansion wasn't scope creep—it was strategic necessity. We don't believe that a single asset can completely deliver a new artistic direction, especially when campaign assets need to maintain impact across multiple flights and touchpoints. Each medium required its own approach to authentically connect with audiences.
The Human Truth
Our cinematic teaser began by honing in on a deeply recognizable human experience: the normalization of pain, suffering, and inequality that surrounds us daily. In an age where "The Algorithm" forces us to switch emotional modes with every flick of our finger as we doomscroll our lives away, we asked the essential questions: How do we keep caring? And how do we combat that feeling of isolation that comes with caring in a world that seems to have moved on?
Lately, the world feels like it's forcing us to only selfishly look inward and focus on our today. But what about the people next to us and their tomorrow? This tension between self-preservation and collective responsibility became the emotional core of our campaign.
By starting with this universal human experience, we created a foundation for storytelling that didn't rely on exploitation or oversimplification, but instead acknowledged the complex emotional reality of engaging with global issues in the digital age.