Raw London took home 5 Gold awards at the EVCOM Clarion Awards 2019 last night. The awards have a renewed focus on the importance of corporate social responsibility across both the agency and client landscape, recognising excellence across a range of categories.
The winning projects include; IDMC for Environment, Dignity in Dying for Health and Wellbeing, Combat Stress for Social Welfare, Book Aid International for Brand Communication and Concern Worldwide UK for Innovation.
Winners were announced after the EVCOMference19 during an exclusive ceremony at The Design Museum, Kensington on 5 September 2019. You can watch our winning projects below.
Hailed as an “engaging and vibrantly animated film”, IDMC’s Internal Displacement: The Untold Story was awarded Gold for Environment. This category celebrates films that successfully and dynamically raise awareness of the current environmental issues affecting our planet.
The film was produced for IDMC last year to help the public and potential supporters understand what internal displacement is, what IDMC do and how they make a difference.
Internal displacement is perhaps more difficult to explain than climate change. The nature of the issue and IDMC’s work is very grounded in statistics, so the biggest challenge was finding a creative approach that would make the issue interesting and accessible to the general public. Cyrus Lo, Motion Graphics Artist at Raw London, said, “We were keen to avoid standard talking heads, so the animation style brings to life the data behind displaced people worldwide and draws a connection between the stories behind the numbers.”.
One judge described this film as “thought provoking and heart wrenching” and another as “so compelling and so dignified.”. The short case study film, Christie’s Story, was produced for Dignity in Dying to campaign for change in assisted dying laws across the UK.
Christie’s Story won Gold in the Health and Wellbeing category, which recognises films that raise awareness of medical issues, mental and physical, to promote health and general wellbeing. This marks the second year Raw London have won Gold in this category, after Marie Curie’s Lorrainne’s Story won in 2017.
Described by the judges as a “bold, beautiful and ambitious idea”, Book Aid International’s The magic of reading ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ took the Gold award for Brand Communication. The film was funded by players of the Postcode Lottery and produced last year to help the charity communicate their brand identity and purpose; that no child should live in a world without books.
It’s since achieved fantastic results for the charity and was also nominated in the Charity Film Awards earlier this year. Judges commented; “Beautifully shot and composed – with wonderful vocal work. Of course everyone loves WILD THINGS and having such rich prose is a nice bonus! Artistically, the film played on the contrast between the familiar text and the unfamiliar setting and this proved a dramatically rich and impactful storytelling device. This also conveyed the power of books to create imaginative worlds and transform our reality.” Amber Parsons, Creative Director and Lee Jones, Director of Photography at Raw London, added, “This film was born out of a mutual ambition, client and agency together, to truly bring to life the magic of reading. We’re so pleased with the result.”.
The Ration Challenge, created for Concern Worldwide UK, took Gold in the Innovation category, which recognises films that seek to engage audiences with social issues in a unique and original way. Using a social experiment format, it gives members of the British public a glimpse of what Syrian refugees living in Jordan have to live on.
Deborah Underdown, Director of Communications at Concern Worldwide UK, said; “We wanted a film that would raise awareness of both the issues facing some refugees as well as the challenge we wanted people to get involved with. The film met our brief and we were pleased that it wasn’t designed to provoke guilt. Instead, it highlights the fact that people care about what Syrian refugees have to face and challenges us to carry out a small act of solidarity.”
Combat Stress took Gold in the Social Welfare category for their Liberating Lives campaign, which aims to raise awareness of military mental health and the impact that treatment and support has had on the lives of the veterans. Judges described the winning film as “an emotional punch” in a category that raises social issues to vital prominence. You can watch a clip of the film below, in which a group of veterans meet in a roundtable setting to share their own personal experiences, facilitated by psychologist Dr Manveer Kaur. It’s a refreshing take on a case study film, and gave the charity an uncut 70 minute discussion with the people at the heart of their charity, alongside a bank of photographs and cut downs for online and social media.
A huge congratulations to all the winners and a massive thank you to the judges.We look forward to the EVCOM Film Awards later this year, where we are shortlisted for a further 4 awards, including; Book Aid International for Brand Communication and Cinematography, RCGP for Recruitment and Induction and World Vision UK for Animation. EVCOM Film Awards ceremony will take place at the Southbank HQ of the BFI (British Film Institute) on 21st November 2019.
