Christmas in July: St Mungo’s campaign from Parkhouse tackles homelessness

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St Mungo’s agency, Parkhouse, are excited to announce the launch of their summer appeal 2020 to help end homelessness. A summer appeal with a difference. It’s all about Christmas.

That’s because traditionally, Christmas is the time of year when many people get round to thinking about homelessness. But the point is that homeless people need our help all year round, to get off the streets and on with their lives.

So the creative treatment uses the language, visuals and music we’re all familiar with seeing and hearing during the festive season. What we’re not familiar with is seeing and hearing them in the middle of summer, which gives the campaign real cut through.

One execution informs you ‘’Tis the season to help homeless people’. It uses snow, a reindeer and a sleigh plus a classic Christmas tune to grab you in the July and August heat. The other asks you to wish homeless people a ‘Happy Summer’ and looks similarly festive.

Working in partnership with MintTwist, the media planning and buying features Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and, a first for St Mungo’s, Spotify.

Laura Herring, Head of Individual Giving at St Mungo’s, is eager to begin. “Parkhouse approached St Mungo’s with an innovative way to keep the needs of our clients in front of mind during this unprecedented time. We’re very excited about the ‘Christmas in July’ campaign.  We’re grateful to Parkhouse for this creative idea and for the unique opportunity to incorporate Spotify into our fundraising activity. Traditionally, Christmas is a busy time for the charity, but the pandemic has shone a light on how public support is needed more than ever.”

Sharing her enthusiasm, Marc Michaels, Strategy and Creative Director at Parkhouse, added “we realised that homeless people can’t wait for Christmas. For very different reasons from the rest of us. So we started Christmas early”.

Andy Todd and John Vinton, the creative team behind the work, are equally passionate. “Lots of clients give you Christmas briefs to start work on in summer. But not many are visionary enough to actually launch Christmas campaigns then”.

The campaign launches in the first week of August and runs for two months, ending before the conventional Christmas campaigns begin.

 About Parkhouse

 As a strategic communications agency, Parkhouse combines the power of data with compelling creative to help brands connect better with their customers.

For any enquiries please contact Marc Michaels, Strategic and Creative Director at Parkhouse on MarcMichaels@paragon-cc.co.uk / https://parkhouseagency.com/