With the job market for graduates becoming ever more difficult and the looming threat of AI to junior roles, Bold Studio felt it was important to offer real-world experience to recent graduates. At the same time, the economic landscape is making it harder to fund and run small charities, with self-promotion often an after thought.

To address both issues, this year we paired recent graduates with a worthy cause, giving them hands-on experience while providing the chosen charitable organisation with a campaign they otherwise couldn't fund.

Over the course of a month, the studio helped mentor the graduates through the design process, covering ideation, conceptual thinking and presentation skills. The graduates then presented their ideas to the client in person, gaining real-life experience and the opportunity to make a lasting impact on society.

This year’s selected charity was OneKind. Founded in 1911, OneKind works to end cruelty to animals through campaigning, research and public advocacy. They operate across Scotland to challenge outdated laws, expose hidden suffering and promote compassionate choices.

Brief

With the Scottish Parliamentary elections now over, a new wave of MSPs has taken office. Many of them will be unfamiliar with OneKind and its impact.

The challenge was to create a compelling campaign or digital experience that introduces OneKind to new MSPs, grabbing their attention and making a memorable first impression.

The campaign should communicate one key message:
Animal welfare matters deeply to voters and OneKind is the organisation to lead real change in Scotland.
This is not a niche issue it is central to how voters see compassion and fairness in society.

The Process

We worked closely with the chosen charity to write a creative brief based on a topic that would make a sizeable impact on their organisation, while simultaneously allowing the graduates to flex their creative muscles. This year’s graduates Louise Ribbeck and Elouise Miller came to us from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen.

We opened the doors to the studio for a month, working closely with the team to research the subject in depth and develop two creative paths for the brief.

These concepts were then reviewed by our creative team in an internal pitch, giving the students the opportunity to practise their presentation skills before pitching to the client.

The final week saw the graduates work together to produce a range of materials for the campaign, which would be shared across social media and video, and, most importantly, as a full stand at the Scottish Parliament.

The Results

The graduates created two brilliant concepts.
The first was based on the connection between humans and animals, portrayed through the childhood act of making animal shadow puppets. It offered a fun, interactive way for MSPs to engage with the subject, complete with a takeaway guide on how to create animal shadow puppets.

The second route played on the fear of MSPs being out of the loop on an important subject. Through our research, we discovered that the Scottish public views animal welfare as its second most popular charitable cause. In contrast, MSPs surveyed ranked it 10th.*

The campaign included a photo opportunity for MSPs to literally put themselves in the loop with animals through an interactive stand. They could also test their knowledge with takeaway pop-quiz cards.

Conclusion

This experimental programme has left the client in a better position to promote the good work they do and has hopefully given the graduates some real-world experience and a taste of studio life, helping to launch them into their creative careers.

As a studio, we were very impressed by the graduates’ conceptual thinking and dedication, and we are ever hopeful for the future generation of creatives.

Campaign for Change continues to adapt and grow. Please follow us to see next year’s programme take shape.