St Martins Housing Trust

Marketing comms design | Creative advertising campaign | Design for digital | Signage design

A campaign to change perceptions of the Homeless

First got Naked 2021

Ignore them, they deserve the streets

St Martins Housing Trust is a local charity offering housing, support and care in order to improve the lives of the most vulnerable and increase compassion towards homeless people in our community. As winter sets in homeless people are more vulnerable than ever. With help from students from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Norwich University of the Arts (NUA), who worked on a collaborative research project to find out what people think they know about those experiencing homelessness, a campaign was developed to highlight those thoughts and impressions.

Help us to help them

Using poster ideas developed by the students from the research, Naked provided creative direction and a series of artwork for the campaign. The strategy focused on stark public perceptions of homeless people, in contrast with the voices and feelings of a person experiencing homelessness. A series of designs with different messaging were rolled out through a county-wide advertising campaign, appearing on buses, billboards, local radio and social media.

Start to change the negative perceptions

Initial reaction to the campaign has been positive both from members of St Martins and also public comments on social media. One person describing the campaign as “Such an innovative and important campaign. Many thanks for raising awareness at what can be a difficult time.” Having rolled out in late November the campaign is set to carry through December and early January. We’re hoping that awareness is raised and a positive impact is felt on perceptions around homelessness.

Such an innovative and important campaign

“The team at Naked were fantastic. They quickly understood what was needed and turned our draft concepts into reality with their art direction and artworking, creating a campaign that attracted so much attention on the streets and online. They also turned the work around within just a few days from brief, which was vital in this instance in order to gain the best value media slots. This has been a great collaborative effort between the students of NUA, our volunteer Creative Director, TTMA Media and Naked Marketing.”