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Deaf Works Everywhere

National Deaf Children’s Society

A campaign to shift entrenched audience perceptions

The NDCS are launching their Careers Campaign: an initiative that seeks to address many of the challenges faced by deaf young people on their journey through education and into employment.

 

Our task was twofold:

Firstly, we needed a campaign identity and a line that could function across a period of 3-4 years, resonate with a range of audiences (from deaf young people, their teachers, to policy advisors and employers), and bring synergy to a broad range of campaign activities. Our campaign identity draws on the master NDCS brand, with the introduction of a bold and optimistic campaign colour, dynamic backgrounds, and a confident photography style. Our campaign line, ‘Deaf Works Everywhere’, has swagger, power and, importantly, is an active truth.

 

Secondly, we needed to launch ‘Deaf Works Everywhere’. Working collaboratively with NDCS’s Youth Advisory Board, we honed in on the core problem: deaf young people have limited aspirations for their futures because they don’t know what jobs deaf people can do. Red Bee’s own audience research revealed a huge disparity between children’s limited and narrow perception of ‘deaf jobs’ and the expansive range of jobs that deaf people are actually doing.

 

At the crux of the campaign was our strategic focus on a young, open-minded demographic, before they reach the age and life-stage focused on narrowing their options.

THE LAUNCH CAMPAIGN

We sought to challenge the dominant misconception that there are only a very limited number of careers and jobs open to a deaf person. In doing so, our aim was to prevent a drop in the aspirations of 11-13-year-old deaf young people and, instead, to inspire them and expand their options.

A vast array of generously-donated contributor clips featuring real deaf people in their working world, plus deaf talent hired across the production team, ensured not only authenticity but created a sense of belonging to diverse professional communities.

 

To help deliver a message of solidarity over charity, actors Vilma Jackson and Sophie Stone were cast as our BSL and voice-over narrators. Their dual casting means the film is fully accessible to all types of communication throughout, and their powerful performances bring the rallying script to life to its full effect.