The Background
WaterAid's Events Fundraising Team came to us to help launch a brand new virtual swimming event, open to both indoor and outdoor swimmers. With physical events cancelled across the UK because of Covid, the team was looking to the virtual events market to plug the fundraising gap. As a water charity, swimming was an obvious fit, and they wanted to build a stronger presence in the water-based challenge space.
The Brief
Swimming events weren't new to the market, so the brief was about ownership — something distinctly WaterAid that could stand apart from everything else out there. We were briefed to shape the whole product: what the event would look like, the messaging hierarchy, the creative identity, and a full suite of assets to pilot it. And we needed to move fast, with a hard deadline to get it live before Autumn.
The Work
We started by exploring potential audiences and what would actually motivate them to sign up. From there, we landed on the distance — a marathon — as the hook for the whole proposition, building out messaging by audience type. The name followed naturally: Swim Marathon. Simple, descriptive, and a name that staked a claim on the space.
From there, we developed a range of creative options for WaterAid to choose from, each one built to make the challenge feel like a genuinely exciting opportunity rather than a slog. Once the creative was refined and the variations locked down, we designed the full asset suite needed to launch — animations for Facebook and Instagram, static social ads, and a website/email banner. We also created a bespoke logo for the event, used across every asset and on the participant medals themselves.