WithYou is a national charity that supports people experiencing drug, alcohol and mental health challenges. Their story is rooted in, and born of real-life experience, and driven by compassion and an ethos of standing alongside those they work with. They are committed to offering non-judgemental support to everyone who needs it, and work hard to help end the stigma that can be associated with these issues.

Challenge

WithYou, approached us because they knew they had a problem – their 2020 rebrand had failed to land with their audiences. This came at a time when the people they were trying to reach had evolved into two quite distinct groups – end-users and service commissioners and partners.

We were invited to find out why this ‘failure to land’ had happened and to devise a strategy to help the WithYou brand identity attract and motivate these groups. The whole process needed to be approached with care, avoiding any further confusion and not damaging the existing brand equity.

Practical, tactical things will only ever take you so far. If it feels like there’s a lot about what your organisation looks and sounds like that needs to change you need to be looking at your brand positioning – really examining that and trusting in the brand review process.

Belinda Phipps, Acting CEO, WithYou

Approach

The brand review process gave the client an opportunity to step back and understand how the WithYou brand was being perceived. This enabled us all to make informed choices on how to proceed.

We identified that, first and foremost, WithYou needed to get clear on what they stood for and cared about. Having run a series of discovery workshops we made recommendations and were able to define their brand strategy.

When you can turn around and read statements about your brand it reconnects you to why your work is so important. That relights the fire. So, if nothing else, thinking about and discussing the brand reconnects you to the soul of the organisation and to individual souls – that point and purpose of why you exist in the first place. A lot of what happens day to day is plain hard work. It can be frustrating when things don’t always go smoothly, but being able to remind yourself why you’re doing it in that consistent and elevating set of statements – that’s really helpful.

Belinda Phipps, Acting CEO, WithYou
We went on to bring the strategy and recommendations to life through design, messaging, extensive brand guidelines and a roll out across communications.

Solution

The strategy, arising from our extensive brand review, focused on the need for WithYou to re-engage with their origin story. The ‘lived experience’ and ‘standing alongside, without judgement’ elements of this story represented a powerful way of reinvigorating the communication of their mission both visually and verbally.

WithYou’s wordmark had been designed to represent unity and connection. The concept worked well but needed to be further emphasised in its application. We did this by taking the ligature (or linking path) between the ‘h’ and the ‘y’ letters, and using it as a visual device to frame and add dynamism to WithYou’s communications. We named this evolution of the existing concept, ‘the WithYou Pathway’. It demonstrates how WithYou works with their clients and partners – side by side, on a pathway to recovery.

We provided the client with this customised version of their brand font to enable the in-house team and any creative partners to easily incorporate the wordmark into their messaging.

Co-Foundry collaborator, Kendra Futcher wrote a powerful brand story to breathe new life into the origin story and other key milestones in WithYou’s timeline. This illustrates how WithYou are there for everyone – from the people that need their support, to the commissioners working on the design and delivery of their services. From the WithYou team who deal with the day-to-day, to the local and national services delivering on the WithYou mission.

This was further emphasised by introducing photography that communicates WithYou’s open-door approach. People who experience challenges with drugs, alcohol or mental health are all too often depicted negatively, something that contributes to perpetuating the stigma around these issues. Our comprehensive guidance on how to commission and use photography that evokes hope and positivity, and conveys a sense of strength and resilience was specially prepared to help in-house teams and creative partners easily implement this shift in direction.

Our research had homed in on the fact that the organisation was founded from lived experience and centres around talking therapies. The idea of WithYou working alongside their clients and partners could be expressed in terms of it being a conversation. To illustrate this we developed a set of conversational devices that can be used to contain copy, highlight words, and make content come to life.

We also created a bank of illustrations designed to communicate common themes so that the marcomms team would not be reliant on photography alone. These illustrations represent easily-recognisable shortcuts and ensure brand consistency is maintained, avoiding the profusion of styles that had previously emerged in the absence of guidelines.

We particularly appreciated how you were so behind the idea of having all [stakeholder] voices heard. You never got protective of your work but always took the feedback on board so you and The Co-Foundry team could come up with creative that was really going to achieve our goals and hit the spot with all our audience groups.

Stephen McCulloch, Executive Director – Marketing and Communications, WithYou

Thank you so much to The Co-Foundry team for your incredible creativity, talent, insights and enthusiasm, but most of all for your patience! The refreshed brand is phenomenal.

Helen Thorpe, Head of Brand and Digital, WithYou