Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

I’ve worked as an Art Director in direct marketing for the past 15 years, raising awareness and quite a few quid for causes that help children, old people, blind and disabled people, dogs, birds and all manner of exotic wildlife around the world.

Before shutting ourselves away, brief in hand and marker pads at the ready, my Copywriter and I, where possible, will talk to the people with the inside story. A project worker, a volunteer an NGO, and every now and then someone who actually uses the charity's services (well maybe not in the case of the wildlife!)

Not surprisingly, it’s their stories, their passion and their experiences that we end up trying to capture, and deliver to Dorothy Donor.  

How do we do that?

We’ll write a letter pretending to be from them. We’ll put in a photo posed by a model to protect the individual’s privacy and supply a cut and paste case study so that the details won’t be recognised. We’ll add a child's drawing supplied by the charity (or failing that scribbled by the Art Director's kids)

When the envelope and its contents eventually land on the doorstep it’s usually a very distant relative to the spine tingling moment of inspiration that gave birth to it.

Surely it’s time to let the people who matter tell their own story, direct to our audiences, without us getting in the way.

How can we do that?

We do that by using video. Every client has a website crying out for interesting and engaging stories. I believe they call it content. And video can deliver just that.

In this, fast moving, multi-channel, digital world, one thing remains constant. Our job is still about telling stories and video allows us to tell those stories more authentically, more personally and more emotionally than ever before.

It’s time to let the people who count speak for themselves.

It’s time to let Katie, a 10 year old partially blind girl explain just what it feel’s like when she loses her friends in the playground?

But hey, don’t take my word for it.