Client
World Health Organization
(WHO)
Category
Campaign
Deliverables
Video
Design
Social Media
Health for all: 75 years of improving public health
Background
On 7 April 2023, the World Health Organization celebrated its 75th anniversary. This was a significant milestone which the Organization wanted to use to highlight its incredible achievements over the past 75 years.
Rooftop was approached to help develop an international anniversary campaign which would be rolled out over the period of a year across all of WHO’s channels and media platforms. The campaign would run from 7 April 2023 (World Health Day) until 7 April 2024.
In 2022, Rooftop developed an animated figure, ‘Lady Health’ as part of that year’s World Health Day celebrations. She represents the various aspects or focus areas of the World Health Organization through illustrated icons woven into a tapestry, signalling the importance of the interconnected elements when it comes to a holistic approach to health.
Lady Health was very well received by the WHO and the public, so it was important that she also feature in the anniversary celebrations – with a few adjustments to incorporate some of the milestones that WHO has achieved over the past seven and a half decades.
One of the key requests from the client was to ensure the campaign was promoted as a global celebration. And that the achievements of WHO have been possible thanks to the coordinated efforts of millions of people across the world – from everyday citizens to healthcare workers, significant partners and governments.
Challenge
Rooftop had just six months to design and develop the entire anniversary campaign which included a unique, celebratory icon which highlighted the WHO’s achievements in a fun, creative way.
Our teams were also involved in developing a flagship campaign video highlighting WHO’s work over the last 75 years, Corporate Identity guidelines to inform the brand’s visual language for the duration of the 75th anniversary celebrations, an icon animation, and reimagining ‘Lady Health’ for the 2023 launch of World Health Day.
These assets would then be used throughout the WHO on all of its materials including online web banners and social media for the period of a year.
Solution
The Rooftop design team developed several options for the WHO 75th icon. The chosen icon was then rolled out across all the UN languages and multiple layout and file formats totalling over 400 individual files.
Brand guidelines were developed to ensure application of the 75th brand was consistent and to specification.
A set of core health-related icons was also developed and integrated along with the 75th icon into a key visual which was based on the illustrated Lady Health that Rooftop created for the World Health Day 2022.
The illustration was updated and repurposed to fit the overall WHO 75 theme. These key components were then rolled out and applied to a variety of deliverables for the WHO 75 campaign.
To bring to life and reveal the WHO 75 logo, the design team’s work was handed over to our in-house animation department. They took inspiration from the design team’s work on the icon and used it as a guide for the use of lines and colours. The animation combines various brand elements to dynamically demonstrate the passing of time, celebration, and the journey that the WHO has travelled over the 75 years.
Rooftop also created a series of social media content. This content was strategically developed with specific objectives in mind and intended to roll out over the full year of celebrations. The content consists of fun and engaging ‘Did you know’ style posts, animated-, carousel-, and story posts, all engineered to solicit engagement from the viewer.
When it came to the flagship video for the campaign, the requirement was to distil 75 years of our collective, worldwide health journey into a piece of content that was less than two minutes long.
In developing the video concept, we wanted to keep the message as simple and direct as possible but without losing the element of intrigue or engagement. We opted to represent the history of WHO as an inspiring storybook, full of archival images from the last 75 years; and what better way to see this story unfold than through the eyes of a child. Using a cast of child actors, we catch a glimpse of the wonder they experience as they observe the history of health over the last 75 years. Not only did this create intrigue, but it also gave a strong sense of the responsibility we all share in ensuring that the future of health – that which these children will inherit – can continue to progress through science and solidarity.
In terms of practical execution, this concept was simple in scope, yet it did not sacrifice any engaging or emotive aspects. This meant that we could create it under tight time and budget constraints, without losing any confidence in the impact that the video would have. Our in-house production team created diverse interior environments across the four locations that we used for the shoot. This formed the backdrop of a globally diverse cast of children despite all the child actors and locations being produced in South Africa.
Our in-house post-production team intercut the original footage with WHO archival footage (which was also represented as still images in the story book itself). The final video is one that we are very proud to have produced, and we truly believe that every success that it has had in captivating audiences is testament to the truly inspiring work that WHO has undertaken over the last 75 years.
With our animation, graphic design, video as well as our campaign team working together and collaborating on the project from conceptualisation to delivery, we were able to roll out an effective, celebratory campaign for the World Health Organization’s 75th anniversary that can be seen around the world.
