Christian Aid Brand Storytelling, Tone and Messaging

Christian Aid does some incredibly radical, progressive, vital and compassionate work in the international development sector.

It always has.

Ever since it was founded in 1945 to help refugees following the Second World War.

Through the 1960s, when they advised Martin Luther King and helped create the Disasters Emergency Committee.

Through the 1970s, when they provided seed funding to the radical New Internationalist magazine to help spread the word about the global poverty gap.

Through the 1980s, when they created the Southern African Coalition which helped bring about an end to apartheid.

Right up to the recent past, when they hacked Liz Truss’s conference speech so activist Vanessa Nakate could tell a much more important story about the climate emergency.

So it was a true privilege when they asked if I could help tell their brand story, develop their messaging and articulate their tone of voice.

Kicking off with a discovery research phase, I then designed and facilitated a brand storytelling workshop, developed brand stories for several audience segments, services and products, and produced a messaging toolkit with Who, How, What and Where sections. I also produced a detailed tone of voice guide with lots of best practice examples in different contexts and delivered a half-day training session for more than 50 staff.

I couldn’t have been happier when Tanya, the lead client said:

“He was direct in advising us what we needed and laid out very comprehensibly how we could achieve it. The result was better than we had hoped for and he was a joy to work with. The whole team said they missed working with Richard when the project was complete.”