The Maverick Group aims to tackle hunger felt by a quarter of working Londoners, with new creative campaign for The Felix Project

Aimee Soudry

The Empty Plate Appeal re-launches on Piccadilly Lights this week

With an enduring food crisis in London, integrated independent agency, The Maverick Group is once again supporting food charity, The Felix Project, with a relaunch of its Empty Plate Emergency Appeal for winter 2024.

The third annual winter campaign created by the Maverick team, is a departure from the previous ‘empty plate’ device, and this year focuses on the human element of working Londoners experiencing food poverty. The campaign brings home that it is people around you every day – perhaps someone next to you on the tube or on a bus, the nurse supporting you in the hospital or your children’s teacher at school – who are going hungry.

The campaign aims to combat the staggering situation that 1 in 4 working Londoners struggle to afford to feed their families.

A Censuswide survey run by The Felix Project found that 25 per cent of working families regularly struggle to afford to feed their children, equating to 308,750 families across the capital. The research also found that 1 in 5 working parents have been forced to turn to a food bank for the first time in the last year to help feed their families – 247,000, while 13 per cent of people in London have less than £3 a day for food after bills.

Tanya Mitchell, Director of Income Generation and Marketing at The Felix Project, said: “From both our research and our work on the ground in London, we know that thousands of people across the capital will be experiencing food insecurity again this winter. The cost-of-living crisis is not easing, vast number of families are worrying about how they will put food on the table, parents are skipping meals and having to turning to food banks to ensure they can feed their families.”

The Maverick Group’s previous creative campaigns have garnered huge success, scooping two Drum Awards, alongside another 11 award nominations, while most importantly helping to raise over £900k for the charity – equating to over 4 million meals.

At its heart, the original campaign highlighted the issue of how many children and families often go without a meal and quite literally find themselves staring at an empty plate. This year the creative continues to build on the foundations and success of previous Empty Plate campaigns but dials-up the ‘London-factor’ to make a deeper connection with the London audience – and inspire them to help Felix feed a fellow Londoner in need. This simple, cut-through creative also showcases how just a small donation of £20 can provide 50 plates of food.

 

Tanya Mitchell added: “With help from The Maverick Group, we’re hoping to fund millions of extra meals this winter. High food prices and the ongoing squeeze on budgets this year has sustained the unprecedented need for food support. This year’s campaign aims to get communities supporting one another, by clearly communicating how anyone, even the people you know and work with, could be faced with an empty plate this winter.”

Owen Rees, CEO and co-founder of The Maverick Group, said: “We are honoured to be in a position to support The Felix Project for a third year, and to have been able to produce a campaign that will ultimately help feed hungry people all across London. The Felix Project and its work is very dear to the whole Maverick team, and as an agency we feel empowered to tackle some of the shocking ‘empty plate’ statistics, through impactful creative. We hope that this year’s campaign will help bring in record-breaking donations”

The Felix Project’s winter appeal launched on Piccadilly Lights on Wednesday 16 October and will run across digital, social and OOH.

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