During lockdown, homeless charity The Big Issue came to us for help. As passersby and general street traffic dwindled to nothing, magazine vendors lost their ability to earn a living.

This created increased risk for some of society’s most vulnerable people, during an incredibly challenging time. We used powerful, relevant storytelling to create a new revenue stream for vendors when they needed it most.

We developed an emergency appeal built on emotive, real-world storytelling and the lost personal connection between vendors and customers: The Big Miss You. Our concept positioned vendors as “visible, but still out of sight”, brought to life with a hero film and across a range of media.

To tackle vendors’ income shortfalls, we then turned #TheBigMissYou into a customer activation called #SellASub. We challenged customers to take a more proactive approach to helping vendors, by selling digital and print subscriptions to 3 friends and family within 7 days using a dedicated Big Miss You app.

Our work led to 5,000+ app downloads and 10,000 magazine subscriptions within 12 weeks, amounting to roughly £779K in new revenue. We delivered The Big Issue’s first-ever digital income stream, and a transformation of their fundraising possibilities, in just three months.