The Challenge
Amidst the pandemic, we identified the need for a charity providing specific support around COVID-19. We recognised the need and opportunity for an organisation that could collate and provide reliable information and links to resources.
The Approach
With Covid Aid, we took a start-up approach – building a first-class website and producing a unique three-step strategy which made use of increasing analytics to identify audience needs and ultimately reach more than 330,000 people with advice, information, and support, becoming shortlisted for ‘Charity of the Year’ in the process.
The Result
This strategy culminated in the Covid Aid Support Community launch, which was built upon an innovative online platform and won Best New Community at the prestigious CMX Awards, with other finalists including Adobe.
In time, the community grew to almost 2000 members, providing a range of classes, courses, live events, peer support, and much more — all free to access. As the charity’s natural lifespan came to a close, the Community continued onwards under independent member ownership, showing how a member-led model can lead to further support and empowerment.
The Longest Ad
We also worked with The Leith Agency to create The Longest Ad; their creative team brilliantly encapsulated what it can be like to live with Long Covid. The Longest Ad won at The Drum Roses Awards, received international recognition, and highlighted the need for support and action.
In addition to the physical advert, we created further engagement by posting The Longest Ad as an intentionally sprawling series of Instagram Stories, looking to produce the longest Instagram Story and making the most of the social platform’s ability to reach a wide audience.
Built by the team at Faur
Covid Aid was built by many of those who are now part of Faur’s collective. Its best-in-class website and eye-catching branding result from a cooperative and collective approach from day one.
We realised that by helping each other, we would already be making a positive impact, one that we could grow outwards as we continued our work and added key collaborators, ambassadors, and organisational partners, including Marie Curie and Asthma + Lung UK. This would provide a model and ways of working that we believe can be used both at Faur and our partners.
Michael said: “It was only through this collaborative and collective approach that we were able to make such an impact in a short space of time with limited resources. This directly inspired the founding and setup of Faur.”