Episode 2: Full Transcript

 

Introduction
Tim Beynon: Hello and welcome to the charity show, the podcast for charity Insiders by charity Insiders. My name is Tim Beynon head of marketing engagement at, The Fire Fighters Charity.
Piers Townley: And I'm Piers Townley, pr manager at The Brain Tumour Charity And every fortnight, we're going to shine a light on all that's great about working in the third sector.
Tim Beynon: Yep, that's right. We're going to be talking to people who work for charities across the UK, hearing about the inspiring things they're doing, so we can all do what we do better.
Piers Townley: and we want you to get involved, too. Tell us what your charity is up to, send us your emails and voice messages and let us know what you want us to cover in future episodes.
Tim Beynon: So that's what the charity show is all about. Get in touch through the links in the show notes, give us a follow and let's get on with the show.
Welcome to episode two
Hello and welcome to episode two of the charity show with me, Tim Beynon
Piers Townley: And, me, Piers Townley.
Tim Beynon: How's your week been, Piers? How are you?
Piers Townley: Very well. I've been looking up and seeing this great shiny yellow thing in the sky, which is just fantastic to see, a bit of sunshine. But that also means that as a charity, we're looking towards our summer campaigns now. So all steam ahead with that. And then this week, the charity has been supporting one of our high profile celebrities, Miles Jup, who's a comedian and a broadcaster and an author as well. And he's out at the moment talking about his own brain tumour diagnosis. And he kindly supported the charity during our March Awareness month and our call for national brain tumour strategy. But the moment he's on tour, it's called on Eyed Bank. I thoroughly recommend everyone to go and see it and we're going to be working with him to do a little bit of promotion, a little bit of an info stand, and just support over on the social media, showcasing the tour as it continues through June, and also his support for the wider community and the work we do as a charity and as one of our high profile supporters. So it's been. It's been great having in on board.
Tim Beynon: He's a legend. I always think of Miles jump, but I can't help but think of Balamori. Wasn't he originally he. Wasn't he from there? I think.
Piers Townley: I actually didn't want to go down there because that kind of hints how old we are. But yes, if you can remember that, and if you can remember that, you've now got that theme tune in your head as well. So, anyone who doesn't know, google that and open it up.
Tim Beynon: It's the world's worst earworm.
Mental Health Awareness Week
as we're recording this, it's also mental health Awareness week. Have you, been, been out and about the theme this year? Because it's run by the Mental Health foundation, of course, theme this year has been movements. Have you been moving much this week?
Piers Townley: I've been desperately trying not to fall in the local basingstoke canal, which is, seeing me dust off a kayak and heading out into the waters there. But yes, and as a charity, we also champion a lot of our support services, realising that a lot of the things we deal with have a major impact on people's mental health. And with the season changing, with the weather changing, you are able to get out a little bit more. So just anything that can get you to open the windows and look at that great big yellow thing in the sky.
Tim Beynon: Yeah, it's been good, yeah. Likewise at a firefighter charity. So much of our work's involved around movement, not only to help people get better physically, but also aligned with their mental health. And those links between physical activity and mental health are so strong and come through in a lot of what we do. And at charity, I know that a few of my colleagues went out for a Wednesday walk. They went out, I couldn't make it because I was taking part in a seniors versus juniors running competition where I was getting beaten by a ten year old. and my son beat me at, a 600 metres sprint, which he's not going to let me forget. He's 13 years old and he's beaten me for the first time in a sprint. So, I don't know about how healthy or otherwise for my mental health that is, but, that's enough about what we've been up to moving around this week, what we've got coming up in the show today, piers.
Coming up
Piers Townley: So we're going to be talking to Richard Jain from the charity brain kind today about branding, rebranding, taking a charity and relaunching, as it were. So how does brand play a role in your data life for the firefighters charity? Tim?
Tim Beynon: Good point, actually, it's really significant. Brand is a really, really important part of what we do at the Fire Fighters charity. And I think as, as is the case with a lot of charities, I think brand plays as much of a role for charities as it does for corporates, inevitably. I think when you think about brands, you think about Coca Cola, Apple, all the big brands, Nike and all that kind of stuff. But really, charity brands are so important and therefore, talking to Richard today is, going to be fascinating in terms of getting his take on, what a rebrand actually involves. but I actually think it's really important to ask that question. We rebranded as the firefighter charity from the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund in the early two thousands. And at the time we really thought we've done brilliantly here. We've gone from quite a complicated title to something that kind of takes a Ron Seal approach, does what it says on the tin kind of thing, but actually what we're finding, and we kind of have to battle our brand a bit in terms of the fact that people assume that the firefighters charity is there for, people who are firefighters. So we've kind of had to battle against that slightly because we also here to support people who work in other areas of the fire rescue services, people, who work behind the scenes in control and support roles and they don't necessarily see themselves in the title of our organisation. So brands can work both for and against you and that's something that we sort of deal with, from a comms, especially from a comms perspective on a daily basis. So, yeah, it's going to be a fascinating insight, I think, from Richard. So I'm looking forward to hearing what he's saying. But what about you? I love the brain tumour charity brand, Piers. How do you find it for yourself and the charity?
Piers Townley: I think what you've said is paramount, Tim, and what Richard will then probably, I think, go into is that they are key at the moment to raise your voice amongst all the other charities out there. We're not the only brain tumour, charity that's around in the UK. So we have to stand out in the colour scheme in the way we use our strap lines. We had a rebrand just before COVID and we very quickly understood we needed this anyway, that it's very personal to those that we support. So they felt it, if we were going to start tinkering with it and we went out and we used our community and those we support as a kind of focus group and asked what they would, you know, what they thought of the ideas to change it. They were very, very personally involved, so we had to be very mindful of that, that we had the reputation to manage, we had to do the integrity and the honesty and the support that we do. You know, it's a powerful thing to have as a charity that even if we are involved in your diagnosis, we are involved in your lifestyle. It does stand out as a very personal kind of connection to us.
Tim Beynon: And then I think, I think, sorry to interrupt you, but I think you're absolutely right. I think people you support are almost like your shareholders of a business, aren't they? They are invested in it. They have that sense of ownership and passion about it.
Piers Townley: They do. And our fundraisers and our supporters and our major donors and our corporate partners, they're very proud to be associated with us. And that then from that world, that corporate world, for example, it's very important that it has a strong identity and people recognise it. And people are proud to put on that fundraising t shirt and go and climb a mountain or run a marathon, or are proud to have the merchandise that they may use or when they were corresponding with them. It's very identifiable, the websites and the communications we have.
If you were a brand...
Tim Beynon: Listen, I like to talk about brand all day, but I must ask you. So this is the question that, well, I went for an interview once. Years and years and years ago, a manager asked me, and I must admit m I have asked it, when I've interviewed marketing at Zecs, as well. If you were a brand Pierce, what brand would you be and why?
Piers Townley: You put me on the spot here, Tim, because I've been thinking about that this morning and it's one of those sort of questions that really makes me, brings out the fear in me because I think you tend to overthink it. So I get the quick fire approach. It's like, okay, I'm going to be m McDonald's or I'm going to be a KFC, KFC the way they, they do their brands. But I'm not going to say that. I'm going to say that I kind of overthink the right answer. So I'm overthinking what am I going to say? And I'm not sure what brand I would be. So I'll throw that back at you. What would you be, Tim? What would your brand be?
Tim Beynon: Okay, frame bad to me. I'm not too sure that's fair. I'm not sure that's playing by the rules, Piers. But I don't know. I've had years to think about this. That's the difference, you see, because I remember answering it at the time and I think, actually I think I answered some stupid answer and then they went away and thought a much better answer. I think I said Microsoft, and I think Microsoft because I've never been cool, I've never been trendy. My kids would back me up on that 100%. but I occasionally have a good idea. So that's it. Absolutely not trendy, the exact opposite. But maybe every now and again on a good day, have a good idea. So there you go. There you, Microsoft.
Piers Townley: That sounds perfect. That sounds perfect. I mean, if you were going to really, really push before, I'd say something like Lego, to be honest, only because I think visually they've done it. And I think when the brand moved over into the computer game market, it was a bit of genius there because you would see a little Indiana Jones and there was nothing on it. You just know that that was Lego and you knew it was Indiana Jones. And the way that brand visually was able to maintain an identity, I think is probably everyone on the planet knows, knows the Lego brand. So if we could be that, it would be me, but only because I admire, I admire so much.
Tim Beynon: Everyone on the planet is going to know you, piers.
Piers Townley: That's it.
Jelly Babies and Help for Heroes
Tim Beynon: Okay. We've been both, as we always do every episode, we're going to take a look at what we've noticed in the news or some what, third sector. Things have popped out to us, as we've been scouring the Internet over the last couple of weeks, piers, what have you, what's, what's on your list today?
Piers Townley: Well, this completely was a stop moment when I was just scrolling through some work on the, and it was a, I did not know that moment. And it was the association of jelly Babies and the way that jelly babies are marketed and have been marketed since the 18, late 18 hundreds. They were actually known as unclaimed babies, which is a little bit dark really. But then they became, the turning point for them was the manufacturers then called them peace babies. They relaunched them in 1918 and they did it to mark the end of World War one. And ever since then, the brand has been associated with veterans, with World War one. And that kind of connection, which I thought was amazing and what's happened now is that Maynard's Bassett, in conjunction with help for Heroes, are launching a branded jelly babies exclusive, sweets, basically to raise money for the 80th anniversary of D Day, which occurs on the 6 June. And I think these branded packets, you can get them at Tesco's. And as they say, other supermarkets are available. As a disclaimer, but I just thought the association and the storytelling with jelly Babies, what they stand for, their history and their association for help for Heroes, which is a fantastic charity. And as James Needham, their CEO of Helper Heroes, said, the proceeds from the partnership, are they going to, as he quotes, support the future of our veterans, providing lifelong support whenever and wherever they need it. So raising vital funds and having a connection that is just part of, I think, of confection history.
Tim Beynon: I love that. What, a great partnership that is. It also makes you remember how these household brands that we come across every day, how old some of them are. That's amazing.
Piers Townley: It's over 100 years old. This turns all the way back to branding again, the branding on the packets and on the Jay babies and the help for heroes logo. And it all comes together that. It's quite arresting because you don't quite know what I didn't quite know when I first saw it. I did not know that. And then I read into it and I read about the history and it's like, really interesting collaboration, partnership.
Tim Beynon: I'm glad they moved away from. Was it unclaimed babies?
Piers Townley: Unclaimed babies back in the 18th?
Tim Beynon: Yeah, that is, yeah, that wouldn't go down well today. Cool. Great story. Great story.
Rebranding - Richard Jane, Brainkind
I found an interesting one and it's one that kind of strikes me as being very british in a way. So this is the story of this, of, a charity shop in Sheffield. So it was a charity shop. I'm just going to read what it says. It's, called create. It's a homeware store in Sheffield was set up to provide work experience for adults with learning difficulties. So a really fantastic cause. But they received an anonymous letter from people who lived nearby. Basically, it was, an inverted cobbers vile, anonymous letter. And, it is pretty horrible. These basically people saying that they didn't want this, charity shop in their area. It, ah, says, and it's very badly written. It says, just a note from neighbourhood watch not to welcome you. The opposite. We try not to encourage charity shops round the area. So the exact opposite, really, in terms of welcoming, such a worthy cause to the neighbourhood. So, you know, as is the way this has gone viral, you know, it's made it onto the BBC website. It went all over the Internet and across the world, actually. Not just universally, not just british, but, the response to it has been, as you would expect, you know, the exact opposite. For those people who have complained, it's got fantastic publicity. They're overwhelmed with support, people volunteering, people wanting to give their time and people visiting the store. So what started off as a really negative thing has turned into something incredibly positive. And I think that kind of shows actually how welcoming people are to the concept of charity. in local neighbourhoods, and how human spirit always wins in the end. So, yeah, I thought what could have been a nasty news story turned into a good news story. So I like that.
Piers Townley: A little slice of faith in human nature again.
Tim Beynon: Rebranding and changing your name is one of the biggest decisions any charity can ever take. Get it right and your new brand could propel you to new heights. Get it wrong, though, and you could end up alienating the very people you exist to support. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People, for example, spent, according to the Telegraph, a reported 260,000 pounds on changing its name to action for hearing loss in 2011, only to turn it back again in 2020 after a poll suggested that the original name was more popular. Leukaemia and lymphoma research, meanwhile, changed to bloodwise in 2015 at a cost again reported by the Telegraph of 125,000 pounds, only to change a second time to blood Cancer UK in 2020, after admitting that bloodwise just failed to adequately communicate what the charity did. So while the intentions of charity rebranding may be just the risks and the costs are high, our, guest in this episode, Richard Jain, took on the challenge of a rebrand, transforming the Disabilities trust into brain kind last year. But as the director of external affairs explained when Piers and I caught up with him, it involved a complex blend of research and insight, and it was certainly not a decision that the charity took lightly. Rich, welcome. Welcome to the charity show. Great to see you. Thank you, for joining us both.
Introducing Brainkind
We're going to talk today a bit about rebranding, and I know you're talking to us from brain kind, and so for anyone who's not familiar with brain kind, perhaps just as a starter, pretend you can just give us a bit of a rundown as to who the charity is, what you do and who you support.
Richard Jain: Yeah, hi. Thanks, Tim. nice to meet you both. so we are brain kind. We've been operating for nearly 45 years. We offer over 40 services around the UK. We started, way back when with six bungalows on the south coast, in, the south coast in Sussex, and now we've got over 40 services around the country and 600 plus beds, working with people who have, acquired brain injury and other complex neurological conditions. So we're now the, largest not for profit brain injury service in, the UK. And we're also at proudly one of CQCs highest rated specialist care home providers.
Tim Beynon: Fantastic. I know how valuable that CQC rating, is. That's really, really impressive. And of course, you were previously the disabilities trust. Tell me a little bit about. I have to ask you, first of all, why the rebrand? Why did the charity decide to rebrand and why the timing? Why only recently?
Richard Jain: So we were previously the disabilities trust. you may also know us as Bert, the brain injury rehabilitation trust, and that, those two brand names and that kind of. There was a slight lack of structure, which means that for the past few years, the disabilities trust has been having a conversation about rebranding and looking at what we do. 18 months, two years ago, we started a new, we launched a new organisational strategy, which means that we would focus our energies on acquired brain injury and, neurological conditions. Over the years. Over the 45 years we've been operating, we've built up a number of services, including some, autism schools for young people and, some services for physical disabilities, various physical disabilities and condition types and learning disabilities. And we decided to focus down our efforts just on acquired brain injury, neurological conditions. So there was the launch of that strategy, which meant we've divested of some of those properties and worked with other organisations for them to take good care of those. but the timing was right then to start thinking about the rebranding. Whenever an organisation goes through any strategic change, any significant campaigns, any significant changes in their operation, then the time is right then to look at your strategy and whether it's working hard enough for you and it's appropriate. So there was a conversation of a good few years then about change, making that change. Always a big decision for an organised, for a charity particularly, but for any organisation. I arrived at, the disabilities trust about 18 months ago and it was then that, we pushed that through. So that six months ago, ah, we relaunched ourselves as brain kind, with that particular focus on, abi and, neurological conditions.
Why rebrand from The Disabilities Trust?
Piers Townley: And how do you go about weighing up the pros and cons, Richard, of this rebrand? Because there are some big issues, aren't there, at stake?
Richard Jain: Yeah, really big issues. Lots of very invested supporters. you've got lots of stakeholders with very strong opinions of who you are, what you stand for, and particularly the biggest, the biggest thing to wrestle with is budget and is it the right time to put those resources in place of brand and the marketing and your communications? So there's lots to weigh up. It was very clear for disability trust and I might add, these decisions were made before I arrived. But in any organisation I've worked in, you've got the same problems on your hands, but the decision was made that we were really the disabilities trust brand was very outdated, it wasn't very coherent or well structured, there was no architecture behind it, and it had split over the years and we had two or three different brand names, we had some different logos and then we had colour coded logos for different areas of the organisation and it was all very complex. And what that didn't do was convey that we are a national organisation with lots of local representation, but that we are one strong, focused organisation. So the time was right with that strategy then, to look at how we get a better, more modern, contemporary, digitally focused brand that works online for us, but also then that we get the name that gives us that cut through. We were the disabilities trust and that could be, that wasn't specialised at all, that could be many, many organisations. And on top of all of that, we were quite NHS blue, which never helps when you're trying to get cut through in the health market. So it was time for that change, and on top of all of those things to then ask everybody about what they wanted to see and then create a brand which is accessible and a visual identity which is more representative of the people we support.
Consulting with staff and beneficiaries
Piers Townley: And you talk there, Richard, about what your supporters, what your beneficiaries wanted to see, how did you go about consulting with them about the changes and about the proposed relaunch?
Richard Jain: in a number of ways. So I think we, in any, project like this, you've got two really important. The most important stakeholder groups. The most important stakeholder group you've got is the people you support. Are you going to carry, is it going to be appropriate for them, is it going to be representative of them and what they need the rest of your stakeholders to do. But actually, in a rebranding project, you're very close. Second and with the power to sink or swim, your project is your staff and your colleagues. So they need to go out and feel really it needs to represent them and they need to go out and advocate for your new brand, your new positioning, your new messaging, go out and use it. So it's really important to talk to those two groups first and foremost, and many others that you need to work through, but those two first and foremost. So we did that with, putting together workshops and meetings. So we worked with an agency on the rebrand and they did lots of strategy research. They spoke to our, clinical colleagues, our, central support services, our, corporate colleagues, and the people we support and ask them about. This is the direction we're going to go in. What is it you'd like to see us become? What does it mean to be and what does the disabilities trust mean to you and what do you want it to mean in the future? so there's some physical meetings there, there's some surveys, so we did some name testing and we surveyed staff and other stakeholder groups as well. but we also had, ah, co production sessions. We spoke to people we support, and took them through the plans in the same way that we'd spoken to the staff. And ultimately we had a brand steering group, which was the board with authority, in the organisation, with some trustees, some senior managers, some people we support and some clinical staff to sense cheque the decisions we were making and the direction of travel we were taking. So we had a number of ways of doing that. Researching, having those conversations and running that co production throughout the process. At a couple of stages we then, had open sessions of teams, meetings or Zoom calls. we had open invitation to staff, particularly to talk about the timings that were coming at the first stage when we chosen a name. We went through the process. We've been through the things that had been rejected, the reasons why, the decisions we'd taken and then the next steps. And then that led up to launch last September, where we did another session with people, to tell them what was coming, his materials that are on the way, all the nice exciting creative bits that were coming, and the launch date, to really try and galvanise that support amongst the staff and as I say, use them as our advocates.
Tim Beynon: That's a really interesting point. I think the consultation amongst start and off staff is obviously really, really crucial. You want your people to buy into what you're doing, but change is a scary prospect for some people, isn't it? Especially perhaps people who've been, around an organisation for a long time. How did you help those people? How did you sort of, work with those people to reassure them that this was a change for the good?
Richard Jain: Yeah, I have to say, I can't remember. There's only a couple of points I can remember in this particular process where we had those issues. As I say, we'd had a number of years of the organisation wanting to do this. It then just comes down to the. How one of those times is when it was one of the only. It's one of the. Not many organisations work on a full renaming as well. That's always a bit nervy to actually change the change. What you're called is a huge step to take and I think there's a bit in that, in the process where you choose the name and then inevitably, you have to spend quite some time working on the creative to support it. And that's a really difficult moment because you can present the facts and you can present the research and you can say this is, this is what this research is telling us, but we've got to make a decision and there's some practical things to put in there as well. But you're looking at a black and white name, you're looking at something which has no story around it, there's nobody stood next to it filling in the gaps for you. There's no photos, there's no other visuals to go with it. So I think there's that bit where you need to back it up, research, you need to have some of those conversations, you need to make some sensible decisions, but at some point you're going to have to take that leap. So holding some people's hands through that process is, what you really need to do and just be prepared to keep telling that story, just keep listening to the feedback. And there is a bit of this all backed up with evidence, but there is a bit of a leap of faith in all of these things where you just have to say, this is the cost of not doing this, we have to make this leap. Look at where we are now, look at where this could take us. And you consider everything that you can consider and help people, particularly the executive and particularly trustees that you have to take through that process. They want the best for the organisation. So it's all coming from a very caring place, but at some point you have to make that decision. and actually brain kind, it was fairly straightforward, you know, straightforward in inverted commas, nothing straightforward, particularly these, but it was, it was a fairly, you know, nice process to go through. There was a lot of support, and really supportive team around it, but you just, you do have. You will come up against those problems. other organisations I've worked at as well that, you know, you get that sort of, reaction from supporters on day one, on launch day and things. And there's some things you can put in place to mitigate against that, but generally people can see that you're taking some steps forward and they want to see an organisation that is modernising, not scared of change, wanting to move forward.
Piers Townley: That sounds like that's one of the crucial things that, that drive and that reassurance that actually you're doing things for the benefit of the beneficiaries. You're doing it for the benefit of the organisation. Overall, you make it sound relatively smooth.
Sticking points along the way
Was there one moment or a few moments, Richard, that were real sticking points, that were real crunch points that you can remember?
Richard Jain: As I say, I came in partway through the process and we were working, with an agency. We were working with an agency called Ragged Edge who were really good and did a really brilliant, job, creatively. and we worked really well with them. m they had done the research and I arrived and one of the. But I think it'd be fair to say their experience hadn't laid previously in charity rebrands. and that hadn't been a problem and was not a problem at any other time as well. But in the renaming process, I've done this two or three times with decent sized charities in the last few years and I know you have to get, as I said right at the beginning, your staff have the power to make or break this. So what you don't do is have any Tada, unveil moments. I've been there. it's not much fun if you feel that, if it is perceived that you've been working in secret somewhere else, in a little bunker somewhere, so encouraging the agency to do some name testing, putting a bit of budget, a small delay to the project and putting these things in place so that we can go out and test some names instead of just picking one. That was really crucial. I'm very pleased that we, we took the time to do that, because that could have been a bit of a problem. And there are also some inevitable wobbles in the week leading up to the launch. Have we done this? Is that working? Is that ready? Oh my goodness, we've forgotten this bit. All of those things. It's a really sort of squeaky time. if you've got your audit in place, your team are on top of all the different bits that they've got. There are thousands and we've still got a list working through. There are thousands of pieces, that need to be rebranded, bank accounts, all sorts of accounts, all sorts of online accounts. It's a real struggle to keep up with absolutely everything. but if your team are prepared, and you've got your list and you can work through things and everybody just relaxes about a few things as well. As long as you've got those primary pieces, those really external, your shop window pieces, is your website working with the right names, is your social media accounts changed? Anything else can happen in the few days after but if you've got the majority of those bits done, you'll be okay. But yeah, everybody gets a little bit tense.
Rollout
Tim Beynon: So your rollout, was it, as you mentioned there. So was it more of a phased rollout then prioritising, as you say, the shop window stuff, rather than it being a marathon snickers overnight change?
Richard Jain: Yeah, we can't do that. We've got, 50 ish of 40 plus services. We've got that in 35 ish physical buildings around the country. It's a big project and there's a lot of, There's a lot of items to change, some of them large physical items, I'd say at the same. At the same time we were building our new, neurological, hospital in York, which opened earlier this year. I spent a lot of time working on the wayfinding signage and the branding for that building with the team up there. we also were. There was a project to take on three services that we, acquired from sue rider, three new, neurological services. So it all. They were all opportunities that all came at the same time and that's great, but it added extra pressure. There were lots of spinning plates at the time. We just can't do it all.
Tim Beynon: I'm actually pretty expensive to try and do it all in one go as well.
Richard Jain: Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. And really it can be expensive to do, And especially if you put all of that expense into a one hit moment that doesn't necessarily fit with the natural timing of an organisation, your business cycle, your strategy. So we're trying to. An awful lot of it in, you know, organic change. There's lots of things, lots of documents that come up, lots of publications we won't touch. We're very comfortable that they may say disabilities, trust until the time comes to renew those things. But there is a lot of physical things, a lot of building things that we still need to change. I've spent a lot of time talking about toilet door sites, that sort of thing.
Tim Beynon: Right, yeah.
Piers Townley: I'm seeing the priorities then, isn't it? M. It's working out what the biggest structures that you need to keep focus on. The rest will fall in over time, I guess.
Richard Jain: Yeah. Yeah. And it can have a long, you know, it's got long legs. It can be, you know, 18 months, two years and then you still. Still. Things will be falling out of the.
Tim Beynon: Woodwork, Dean, I'm sure there's always that one little thing you've forgotten probably that's just going to annoy you in five years time.
Richard Jain: yeah.
Working with an agency
Tim Beynon: Tell us a little bit about working with an agency. and how did that go? Was it, was it straightforward? It's interesting that you mentioned the charity didn't necessarily have, sorry, the agency didn't necessarily have a charity rebrand, background. How did you choose them and how did that go?
Richard Jain: They were really good. They were chosen, again, chosen before my time. so I inherited them and, they were really good to work with. They had a good team, a strategist, a creative lead, a couple of account managers. they were all really easy to work with. and they got on well with our team, at, ah, brand kind as well. So they were really plugged into the comms team, for those of us who were working on the brand, and they were really plugged in with the brand strategy, board as well. choosing an agency is always, I think it's the fun part. I think that, you know, you're going to have to work hand in hand with those people for a year probably, at least, and then onwards. I've worked with some really good agencies in the time. Lots of, you know, lots of names that people in the third sector would recognise and you've got to find. It's got to be a really trusting relationship. You are not asking a, creative to knock up a logo. You know, that creative bit, the colour, the logo, what it looks like is really the short piece. It's the fun bit, but it's the bit that comes, it's the very last thing you do. They've got to get under the skin of your organisation, they've got to become part of your team. If they're sat in a studio over there working on creative stuff and having a think, then that's only partially useful. You need them to be a real strategic partner, and you need them to feel like an extension of your team. They've got to understand you, they've got to be trusted by the organisation, they've got to influence your board, influence your chief exec and their thinking has got to be part of accepted practise by your supporter groups.
Tim Beynon: And I'm imagining they've got to be confident enough to challenge you as well in terms of if they think what your ideas aren't good, then they should.
Richard Jain: Tell you, yeah, absolutely. They've got to set the scene as well. So what you could do is this is one of those brands you'll know mark ons and brand. everyone's an expert. You get lots of creative ideas, sent your way. You've got to do the thing that's appropriate and that is strategically the right thing to do for your brand positioning, for your brand platform. you've got to be able to robustly challenge each other. there's always a bit of that. But if you find the right agency and you find that trust, then, all of the agencies I've worked with over the years, on projects like this, that's the bit they enjoy as well. They like the problem solving and if they don't give you a good result, they won't stay in business for very long. Their interest is to really understand you and work, extremely collaboratively with the team, but with all of your stakeholders.
Impact of the rebrand
Piers Townley: As an organisation now, Richard did branding and the new direction. Are you finding yourselves working very differently than you did before or is it an evolution of how you were?
Richard Jain: I think we've changed. We're changing a lot as an organisation anyway. There's a lot of, you know, we've always delivered brilliant services, high quality rehabilitation services across the country. We still are. That's not changing. What's changing is how we operate between those. So I talked at the beginning about being not seen as a national organisation. We have had lots of independent, sizable organisations. If you walk into some of our hospitals, you are walking into a multi million pound budget organisation with 150 staff. Anybody else would call them a decent sized organisation in their own right. What we've got to do is keep that local focus. So I look after, direct to external affairs, so I look after fundraising as well. As part of that, we're keeping that local focus and we don't want to lose that local support, we don't want to lose all of the good work we do there. But we're changing as an organisation to be more collaborative in our approach, but also looking at those opportunities so that fundraising opportunities don't fall by the wayside. part of our brand is to look at social action, and look at how we make, behaviour changes around, acquired brain injury. So we're working with the government as part of the, APPG, brain strategy, group, ABI strategy group. we need to be that voice of influence and we've been a very quiet organisation over the years. So the brand is that opportunity for us to get out in the world and become, you know, a regularly speaking, trusted opinion, ah, source of opinion on ABI and neurological conditions. So we're going through a lot of change, just about how we speak and how we act as an organisation. And that really is the brand. That's the bit. That's, you know, that goes back to the logo and the colours being the last bit. How you act, how you interact with people, how people perceive you, that is brand.
Piers Townley: And how has it impacted, how has it impacted fundraising? How has it impacted income generation?
Richard Jain: we are largely statutory funded, so we work with local authorities and insurance firms and law firms and that sorts of things. Ah, our fundraising activity is quite minimal, in the past and we're trying to build that up. So what we're looking for is fundraising for those added value pieces we want to make. You know, we are a very high quality service provider. We also want to make it extra comfortable. So there's not a lot of wiggle room in the budgets from local authorities, shall we say, for the niceties. That's what we can fundraise for better rehabilitation equipment, wide ranging and more varied therapies, within our services that can be really, as best they can. so we are ramping up our fundraising activities. Now, the brand really helps with that because again you've got that umbrella national organisation with some local focus as well.
Piers Townley: And looking back throughout the whole process through this journey that the organisation has gone through, what would you do differently?
Richard Jain: I build it more time. I mean there's never enough, is there? But actually I think we could have. It's been a long. I would have done it earlier, first off. I think I would have. Whenever the organisation is looking at significant strategic change, you assess the brand. And I think the organisation knew that, the disabilities trust knew that and they were nervous about it or the conditions weren't right. I would go back and I would start it earlier so that we could get going with the brand, with the launch of the strategy, nearer the. Closer than we have. The other thing I would do differently is I've talked about co production, I've talked about being collaborative with staff and people we support. You can do too much of it. But I would say hand on heart, we didn't do enough. There wasn't enough, there wasn't enough time, there wasn't enough resource with everything else that was going on. And I would like to have gone back and been able to do more co production and more planning. not everything works out like that and as we all know, there is never enough time.
Tim Beynon: No, I think that's not enough. Time is probably a third sector catchphrase, really. I think that's probably something that everyone's familiar with in every aspect of what they do. Rich, that's been fascinating. Thank you so much for your time.
Advice for others
I have one last question for you. And it's essentially, what's the one sort of nugget of advice that you would give a charity, somebody listening to this organisation, perhaps that's contemplating a rebrand, but perhaps a little bit daunted by the prospects. What's the one piece of advice that you would give them to? Just to bite the bullet and do it.
Richard Jain: That's a difficult one. I think we've talked a little bit about all the considerations that you have to put in place and everybody always worries about whether it's the cost of doing this, the investment in doing this would really think seriously about the cost of not doing it. You know, we work in an increasingly competitive sector. every bank, every soft drinks company, every insurance firm has got a CSR, piece of activity going out which is competing for the same pound in people's pockets. it's tough times. You have to be able to get cut through, you have to be able to communicate who you are and what you stand for in, you know, in a nanosecond. You have to get, you have to get through there. So I would really think about the cost of not doing it. If your gut's telling you that your brand is a bit stale and is not meeting the needs of your organisation as it is now, then I would really think carefully about, the cost of not investing in your brand.
Tim Beynon: Rich, thank you ever so much for your time today. Have a good rest of your day. Thanks very much.
Richard Jain: Thank you both.
Superstars of the week
Tim Beynon: Okay, it's time to give a shout out to some brilliant people. In each episode of the charity show, we want to celebrate some of the incredible people working, volunteering and fundraising across our sector. And you can nominate your deserving colleagues or superstar fundraisers as well. Just email us at, thecharityshowpodmail, uh.com or get in touch through the links in the show notes. You can even send us a voice message that we can play out in the next episode. So who have you got this week, piers?
Piers Townley: Well, I'm going to shamelessly plug one of our super fundraisers for the brain tumour charity. And this is a, a wonderful young man, nine year old Arthur Middleton, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour age just three years old. And this year he's embarking on a series of UK climbs to climb the equivalent of the height of Everest, which is. And don't, don't write it, don't come in. If I get this wrong. 8800 metres around. It's a long way off. So he's climbing various UK peaks to raise money for our, the brain tumour charities, the Everest Centre, which is a german based research centre for paediatric brain tumours. So little Arthur, along with his family are climbing all these different peaks. And a couple of weeks back, he went and climbed Scarfell pike and at the very top of there, he bumped into none, other than Martha Lane Fox. Now, if you've of a certain age, you'll remember that Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Martha Lane Fox, as she is now, was a co founder of Lastminute.com, very much a champion of the.com boom way back in the day. And about 20 years ago, she had a horrific car accident out in Morocco. And since then she's had to go through years and years of recovery, but has become so devoted to so many charitable causes. And she met Arthur, at the top of Scarfell pike. Got chatting to him and then spoke about him really, really lovely in a blog and talked about the charity and his work and his amazing inspiration as a young fundraiser and also supporting her own charities that she does. I think it's like day one trauma and I am the code where it's encouraging young refugee camp girls with computer skills and ability.net. And I think there's another one called Horatio Gardens, which is a spinal injury charity. So she supports lots of charities herself as well. But just seeing her on the top of the mountain coming up and talking to Arthur and then going out on her own social channels and writing about him and talking about Arthur's story was just amazing. And I know that Arthur and his family, who continue to fundraise for the blame juvenile charity, were just very, very touched by how warmth and how understanding and how these kind of stars collided, basically. So you can go on to Martha Lane Fox's socials and see her, a story of her own, Martha's mountain mission that she's doing this year. And then you can go on to just giving page and read about Arthur Middleton's story and all his fundraising for the every centre. So two amazing fundraisers and a mountain. That's my highlight for this, this week.
Tim Beynon: Nice. Excellent. I love that. And we had a, chapter in the last episode called James, who did, an amazing, sort of very physical, fundraiser. Again, very young guy. And there's something about young people doing amazing challenges like that. It's really inspirational, isn't it? Absolutely incredible.
Piers Townley: And it's no me seat. It's a long way up. This is a challenge to anyone, let alone someone who's running with an injury, running with a brain tumour, running with disabilities. When fundraisers go on these extreme challenges, they are quite awe inspiring.
Tim Beynon: Yeah. Also segues nicely into, my star of the week, my superstar of the week. So Arthur was nine years old, is that right? He was nine.
Piers Townley: Nine.
Tim Beynon: Okay, so my superstar this week is 107 year old Joan Willett. So Joan, who's 107, now, they've held a party for Joan, who's raised thousands of pounds, who actually did raise fastest pounds during the COVID pandemic. She's had a big party thrown for her at her care home, because she's unable to attend an event at Buckingham palace. So it's lovely that she sadly wasn't there feeling well enough to attend Buckingham palace for a garden party. So everyone in their care home threw a huge party, which I think was lovely. So huge respect to Joan. And she raised 70,000 pounds for the British Heart foundation during lockdown by walking 17 miles up and down a hill outside her care home. So it's a little bit like the, Captain Sir Tom Moore story. Obviously, everyone knows that story. And he did an amazing thing walking around his house as many times as he did, and got a huge amount of publicity. But Joan Blesser didn't hardly get any publicity at all and walked 17 miles up and down a hill at, 100 plus years old at the time. So an incredible lady, and I'm so pleased that she got to have the party and a celebration, and even if she wasn't able to make it to Buckingham palace, so she also must mention as well, she is a British Empire medal, winner as well. She was awarded that medal last year. So well done, Joan. This is for you. And, also just goes to show you're never too old to achieve anything, and you set yourself a goal like that. Want to do some good with support of all those people around you, some fantastic people in her care home, she's achieved something fantastic there. So well done, Joan. Amazing.
Piers Townley: Yeah. Never too old, as you said, and then never too young. Back to Arthur. It's incredible to have two fundraisers, nearly 100 years, nearly a century apart, to feature this week some incredible stories.
Tim Beynon: Yeah, you're absolutely right. Some amazing, amazing. couple of people there. So well done to both of them. But I also must, must also give a shout out to some colleagues from the firefighters charity to Charlotte Smith, Claire Delaney and Andy Russell, two of them are community fundraisers. One of them is an engagement rep for us. And they climbed Snowden earlier this week, raising 2000 pounds, for the charity, taking our mascot blaze bear along with them as well. Some great photographs from there and I know, I think Andy was suffering in a few days after that. I think his legs are giving him a bit of grief, but they made it to the top. some great fundraising, some lovely photos, and just wanted to say a huge congratulations to them as well.
Piers Townley: There is a height team going on here, Tim. I think we both need to sign ourselves up to walking up at least some stairs. At least that.
Tim Beynon: yeah, I just. I spent last week running around a flat track and you were on the basinstoke canal. No height at all.
Piers Townley: No chance of any altitude sickness for either of us at that point.
Coming soon
Tim Beynon: So that's it for this episode. Huge thanks to Richard Jane for joining us and giving us some food for Fort on brand. What have you got coming up, piers?
Piers Townley: Yes, there's lots in the pipeline, Tim. We're going to look into how charities innovate the impact that AI artificial intelligence could have for all our careers. We'll find out what motivates the public to give and we'll even ask whether charity anniversaries are worth marking and if.
Tim Beynon: That'S whet your appetite. There are loads of ways you can get involved in future episodes too. We'd love to hear about the great work your charity is doing, for example. Or if you've got an idea for a topic or a story you'd like us to cover, then let us know about it.
Piers Townley: Absolutely. You can get in touch through the links in the show notes or email us at, the channel charityshowpodmail.com. So come and join us on the show for a chat, or nominate someone outstanding for a superstar of the week mention.
Tim Beynon: And in the meantime, please follow us on your usual podcast platform and leave us a review, both of which help other charity folks to find the show.
Piers Townley: So that's it for this episode. Take care and we'll see you soon.