Nice and Serious

When we don’t represent our target audiences, how can we claim to know what will really resonate with them? Strategy can guide us in the right direction, but we cannot anticipate the initial gut reactions that come from lived experience. So is it time to completely remove the barriers between brands and their target audience? Join us for a live panel discussion with Maybelline New York, Vodafone and Art Fund where we’ll discover how you can invite your audience into the full creative process to strike the right chord, with the right people, when it matters most. 🎟️ Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eA8jrewj You’ll hear from:  👉 Alexandra Fraser | Senior Product Manager: Sustainability | Maybelline New York 👉 Kate Arrowsmith | Strategic Comms Lead | Vodafone 👉 Natalie Cahillane |  Head of Creative | Art Fund  👉 Peter Larkin |  Creative Director | Nice and Serious  👉 Moderated by Tom Tapper | CEO & Co-founder | Nice and Serious 

Magic beans may not exist, but seeds for change do 🫘   Cocoa Horizons Week celebrates those seeds – the businesses driving collective growth towards brighter horizons for cocoa communities, and more conscious chocolate for consumers. We worked with Cocoa Horizons and Barry Callebaut Group to create the campaign identity for their first ever #CocoaHorizonsWeek – an opportunity for chocolate companies across the globe to share what it means to be on the journey to making sustainable chocolate the norm.

There’s no denying it, the menopause just isn’t spoken about enough. Making days like #WorldMenopauseAwarenessDay so important. As the menopause is different for every person, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to dealing with it. And there may be times when it impacts how you do your job. This can often result in people experiencing added stress or anxiety in the workplace during this time. To help end this, we introduced a menopause policy at Nice and Serious earlier this year. The policy includes: 👉 Regular open discussions with your line manager on how we can support you based on your individual experience 👉 Flexibility in managing work around your menopause symptoms 👉 Providing leave that sits outside of your sick leave allowance 👉 Encouraging terminology that is inclusive A menopause policy is something we believe all businesses should also introduce to help open up the conversation around menopause in the workplace.

A future without chocolate? Not nice. Decades of cocoa farmers being exploited, climate change, crop disease and a lack of investment in future-proofing cocoa farms, means that the volume of cocoa being harvested is in steep decline. And the serious truth is that we could lose chocolate. Forever. We collaborated with Tony's Chocolonely to give this cluster-yuck an unignorable name – ‘The Chocopocalypse’ – to help its dedicated Choco Fans realise that the doomsday choc is getting ever-closer to midnight. And understand the role they must play to stop it. So, we presented them with an unsavoury choice, do we: 🍫 Shrink bars? 🍫 Hike the price? 🍫 Cut cocoa-content? Luckily, there’s a  fourth option: Choosing change. Tony’s Chocolonely and their Open Chain Mission Allies are already sourcing cocoa responsibly to support strong farmers and protect the future of cocoa crops. Our campaign had the tastiest call-to-action for Choco Fans – prove to the wider chocolate industry that there’s a growing appetite for responsible chocolate by enjoying the Tony’s bars they already know and love. Together, we can end The Chocopocalypse. Choose change. Choose Tony’s Open Chain.

As time spent on social media increases, self-esteem worsens. And young people especially are experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety because of it.  But, surprisingly, 40% of young people actually look to social media for mental health resources. We explored this tension with our new campaign film for Maybelline New York's Brave Together initiative: bringing the two sides of social media to life. Reassuring young people that, while social media can often add to our lives, if it stops feeling good, it’s okay to reach out for help. The campaign directs people to free, professional 1-2-1 support offered by Maybelline's charity partner Ditch the Label - the internet’s safe space to go for support when social media stops feeling good. A big thanks to our production partners at Spindle for bringing it to life. #WorldMentalHealthDay2024

Are ethics and mental wellness at odds with a high performance agency culture? I'll be talking about this and more at Google HQ in a live podcast recording with Louise Scodie from NABS at the Alliance of Independent Agencies's Festival of Happiness 2024. Tickets available in the link in comments 🎟️🎟️🎟️

The Rise of the Aggro-rithm campaign has been nominated for a PR Week Award! Led by Vodafone and Tin Man, the campaign features our film about the terrifying impact of powerful online algorithms on Britain’s tween and teen boys. While the film explores social media algorithms, we wanted to make the film feel deeply human as, ultimately, it’s people’s lives that are affected. We decided not to show any to phone or computer screens in the film. Instead, we portrayed toxic online content as a human being, taking the form of our antihero. As the narrative unfolds, we begin to see the AI character's negative influence, changing the way the teenager thinks and the way he acts towards the people around him - creating a powerful reminder of the influence and control online content has on children.

Power to Change are turning bold ideas into action so communities have the power to change what matters to them. Community businesses are all about building together. And they back them from the ground up. As Power To Change mark their 10 year Anniversary, we helped evolve their brand identity to better signify who they are now. By digging into what ‘community power’ really means, we landed on the use of bricks to represent the ‘building blocks of community’. Their new look now feels active and energetic, placing them at the foundation of change for communities everywhere. 

Distant goals. Loose commitments. Broken promises. Whichever way you look at it, our climate is on the brink – and change isn’t happening quick enough to bring us back. We need to act today. But how? Climate Group has the answer: the Global To-Do List. Featuring Climate Group CEO, Helen Clarkson, OBE, and contributors, Chief Heat Office eugenia kargbo, and Professor of Climate Change Tim Lenton, our launch film for #ClimateWeekNYC helped spotlight Climate Group’s Global To-Do List. A decisive seven actions for businesses and governments to follow to cut their share of global emissions by 2025. Such a bold list deserved a bold backdrop. The Heptagon symbolises how each of these seven actions plays an equal part in climate progress. Helping to house interviews with our contributors and bring our message to life with footage illustrating both the problems and the solutions. The actions are clear. There can be no more excuses. The time to act is now. #OneYear7Actions And thank you to Open Plant for providing some of the amazing B-roll footage.

Why is a loaf of bread and cup of coffee costing you more and more at your local shop? It’s not always obvious how global events impact local realities, but with climate change and years of conflict, the Cost of Living Crisis is a prime example. If the government could invest more internationally in infrastructure, farming, health, education and climate resilience, then the benefits would not only be felt globally, but in your local shop too. In our new film with Project Everyone and Black Sands Communications, we sent Max Klymenko out on the streets to start this conversation with the general public. Makes local sense. Makes global sense. #MakesTotalSense