The Ucl Centre For The Forensic Sciences: Interpretation

Credits & Description:

Title: Interpretation
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Brand: The Ucl Centre For The Forensic Sciences
Country: United Kingdom
Entrant Company: Ogilvy & Mather, London
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, London
Pr Agency: Ogilvy Public Relations, London
Production Company: Ogilvy & Mather, London / The Mill, London / H&O, London
Additional Company: The Mill, London / Kinetic Worldwide, London / Jungle Studios, London
Chief Creative Officer: Mick Mahoney (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Production Director: Jodie Sibson (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Chief Strategy Officer: Kevin Chesters (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Art Director: Cecilia Mari (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Art Director: João Linneu (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Deputy Executive Creative Director: Sam Cartmell (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Producer: Lucy Powell (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Account Manager: Edward Maitland Smith (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Planner: Nicola Strange (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Head Of Planning: Gen Kobayashi (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Project Manager (Traffic Department): Jack Faber (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Traffic Manager: Peter Nuttall (Ogilvy & Mather, London)
Editor: Tom Werber (H&O, London)
Post Production Producer: Shaun Maloney (The Mill)
Sound Design: Jungle (Jungle)
Media Company: Kinetic Uk (Kinetic Uk)
Producer: Shaun Adamson (H&O, London)
Strategy:
Our task was to provide UCL CFS with a brand and the means to communicate their important message. This issue needed to be transmitted to the general public too and so communications focused on simplicity of messaging in high profile channels.Our target audience was Londoners who are highly engaged with causes and cases of social injustice and aware of the global reputation of University College London.The work needed a longer consideration time. The complexity and unexpected nature of our message was intended to cause an engaged, interested and intellectual audience to take note and discuss this vital cause long after they had seen the advertisement. Our intention, beyond raising donations, was to generate a conversation, giving the Centre a means to further engage with a new audience.
Outcome:
Over a two-week period we displayed the work in high-profile, high traffic DOOH sites for both commuters and pedestrians, as well as, through Print, to a combined readership of over 10,000,000 people through insertions in The Metro, The Evening Standard and Shortlist Magazine.With a digital execution, we used a limited budget of under $500 donated by Twitter to gain 48,990 impressions and 23,902 views of our animated GIF creative. Prior to our campaign, UCL were unable to launch their crowd-funding project. We gave them a voice, we gave them a visual identity, and we gave them a brand. We have provided the tools to continue the conversation long after the media had expired.
Synopsis:
Forensic science in the UK is chronically underfunded. This means that forensic evidence could be incorrectly interpreted, leading to false convictions, miscarriages of justice, and even unfair imprisonment. The UCL Centre for the Forensic Sciences (UCL CFS) are therefore crowd-funding £1m to build a state-of-the-art forensic research laboratory to change this. Brief and Objectives1.Create a visual identity, tone and platform for UCL CFS2.Begin to generate donations through the UCL CFS crowd-funding campaign at ucl.crowd.scienceBudgetUCL CFS has no budget and this important project has been conducted entirely pro bono – both through donated creative and media space.The campaign is London and South East of England-centric.
Campaign Description:
The brief required a solution to the challenge of raising funds and awareness to build a world class forensic science laboratory at University College London. At the moment scientists cannot accurately interpret evidence for lack of funding and resources, leading to wrongful convictions.Forensic science is one piece of evidence presented to juries for them to make a decision regarding the innocence or guilt of a person on trial.Without access to valid, robust and reliable forensic science evidence, fairness of the UK’s justice system is threatened.As a metaphor for this complicated insight we showcased, in a variety of media, a series of ambiguous sentences for which the right interpretation, through punctuation, can make the difference between guilty and innocent. Just like misinterpreted evidence in forensics science.
Execution:
The ambition was to create a gritty and authentic look and feel. The executions, that used simple punctuation to bring to life how misinterpreted evidence can mean the difference between guilty and innocent, were placed side by side and attached with tape and staples, as if printed out on actual forensic documents. Grammar is at the core of our execution, so bold, clear typography played a key role. To achieve greater authenticity, nothing was created digitally. Instead we treated our typography by photocopying it multiple times before scanning it to a larger size to highlight and distress the look of our ink and textured paper.All layouts were hand-crafted – the art direction approach was to produce a more truthful reality that would contrast with the glossy, retouched world the general public experiences in forensic TV shows.