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World Bicycle Relief approached us to develop the visual component of this annual campaign. We worked on everything from creative development to in-the-field production to post and delivery. As lifelong cyclists, we have been big fans of WBR’s paradigm-shifting work. Their specially-designed Buffalo Bicycles have helped hundreds of thousands build a better future. Students can now get to school faster. Farmers can haul larger loads to market. Healthcare workers can visit more patients. For this particular project, they were looking to build a punchy, visually-driven narrative that captured the kinetic impact of their work across the country of Malawi.
We started with their core need: a holiday fundraising push to support the distribution and maintenance of life-changing bicycles around the world. We developed a central theme around the idea of giving go—the premise that a donation can not only give an individual a bicycle, but provide them with the seemingly simple but utterly transformative power to GO.
The next step was developing the components that would best communicate this need, inspire viewers, and attract support.
Our goal was to create videos that embodied the kinetic energy of pedal power, grounded in the stories of those individuals who benefit most from it.
We settled on a central visually-driven piece to spark enthusiasm, followed by a series of portraits of bike recipients that built sincere human connection. We developed a storyboard that wove together World Bicycle Relief’s core values with this central idea of giving go.
Pelican cases and drones in tow, we landed in Blantyre, Malawi ready to roll. We rose well before the sun to walk with students on the long trek to school. Pedaled with dairy farmers to deliver their milk to the local cooperative. Made the rounds with volunteer healthcare workers on remote mountain roads. All the while asking how the bicycle could help them shorten these journeys and expand their horizons.
Back in Berkeley, we wove together the voices and visuals from the field. The idea of go was always at the forefront. The primary campaign video used simple but powerful text graphics to convey the core ways that the Buffalo Bicycle helped students, farmers, and health workers to get to their destinations. With this as a framework, we built out the series of documentary-style portraits of each of these end-users.
We also delivered a set of dynamic still images from each piece, as well as transcripts of core interview sound bites to use in social media postings and outreach emails.
By building out these complimentary narratives, we helped audiences understand WBR’s core mission, connecting with the beneficiaries on a human level.
The website’s intuitive design and engaging content have significantly improved user experience, leading to higher visitor retention and increased conversion rates.
The final Give Go series launched as the visual cornerstone of their year-end fundraising campaign.
The central text-graphic driven piece led off the campaign, while each of the portrait pieces was released over several weeks to help build momentum and give viewers a deeper dive into the stories and faces behind the movement. The complete package of visual stories helped WBR reach their year-end fundraising push, providing the funds for thousands more bicycles that would Give Go to communities around the world.
