Rebecca Walton Consulting

National Literacy Trust

The National Literacy Trust empowers people with the literacy skills they need to get the most out of life. Together with my creative partner, The Modern Studio, I worked with them to develop a new brand narrative and visual identity that brings this ambition to life.

As a literacy charity, they had a lot to say. But their many and varied messages weren’t adding up to a coherent story about who they are and what they do. We worked closely with the team to create a brand narrative based around their core purpose: helping people change their stories. Those stories are at the heart of the new brand language. Highly personal and emotive, they capture the real impact of literacy in changing lives. 

The National Literacy Trust’s unique approach is based around the four pillars of literacy: reading, writing, speaking and listening. The logo family and visual system bring these pillars to life. Beyond just logos, the shapes act as windows for storytelling and as playful graphic devices for messaging. Combined with a rich colour pallet, the system allows for the flex in tone needed for the varied audiences, while still building a strong and consistent brand.

Global Commons Alliance

Working as an associate with brand agency Johnson Banks, I helped the Global Commons Alliance to find a new way to communicate their critical mission.

The ‘global commons’ are the vital inter-connected systems that keep our planet habitable. From the Arctic sea ice to the Amazon rainforest, from critical ocean currents to our freshwater network, they support the well-being of all life on Earth. But now human actions have pushed the global commons out of balance. The Alliance brings together a coalition of scientists, philanthropists, civil society groups, businesses and innovators to safeguard what’s common to us all.  

The Alliance’s brand wasn’t communicating their role and vision in clear or persuasive terms. It felt neutral, academic and very similar to others in the sector, whereas it needed to be bold, distinctive and inspiring. Unpicking complex and cutting edge science, we developed a new narrative and brand identity which helped the Alliance communicate the urgency and importance of its remit.

Cats Protection

A better life for cats, because life is better with cats.

In partnership with creative agency lukecharles, I created a future-proof brand for the UK’s leading cat charity. 

Cats Protection had a new and ambitious strategy, aiming to help millions more cats, and to change people’s understanding of and attitudes towards cats. But their brand was holding them back. It wasn’t as recognised, understood or loved as it should be. We worked with them to develop a new brand strategy and identity which would help them reach new audiences with their services, raise more money and increase their impact and influence.   

The new brand aims to build the charity’s reputation as experts in all things cat. It celebrates the unique personality of cats and the bond they share with humans. It’s a major transformation which was informed by the views of employees and volunteers from around the organisation, as well as research with current and new audiences.   

We supported the charity to launch the brand by leading the creative development of their biggest ever fundraising campaign, including a hard-hitting film which tells the story of one of their most important areas of work: their temporary cat fostering service for anyone fleeing domestic abuse. ‘Ava and Mr Biggles’ won the People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Smiley Charity Film Awards.

Save the Children’s brand was struggling. Awareness was low, the donor base was old and declining, and people struggled to understand the breadth of their work, and why they existed.

A new organisational strategy, focusing on under-five mortality, called for a reinvention of the brand. Save the Children wanted to appeal to middle England families with a single-minded message.

I led the development and delivery of the brand strategy, including the new positioning, new look and feel, tone of voice and narrative. I developed a fully integrated marketing and communications strategy to deliver on the organisation’s ambitious targets for brand and income growth.

The new brand positioning and marketing communications strategy doubled awareness of the charity and supported exponential growth in income, enabling millions of children’s lives to be saved.

Unicef UK

Unicef was a well-known brand, but most people in the UK didn’t realise they focus on children. The brand felt distant and indistinct. It wasn’t fulfilling its potential.

I led the development of a simple and compelling brand idea: for every child in danger. This was supported by a consistent brand narrative, and a look and feel which evolved to focus more effectively on the core visual elements such as the colour blue.

The new brand and communications strategy delivered significant increases in awareness and consideration, and supported a 65% increase in income over five years.

The Duke of Edinburgh Award

The Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) had developed a new five year strategy, aiming to give one million young people the chance to participate in a life-changing DofE programme. In particular, they wanted to reach more young people who have experienced marginalisation. A key part of the strategy was evolving their brand positioning and messaging to reach this new audience. I provided strategic advice to support their brand development, including creating and delivering the communications and content plan for the strategy launch to participants, funders, partners, volunteers and staff.

Wood Green

The charity Wood Green is known for rehoming animals, but in reality they do so much more to support pets and their owners. They needed to evolve their brand to reflect their services more accurately and to engage and motivate their supporters, volunteers and staff. I worked with them to establish the brand review project, agree the strategic approach, advise on stakeholder engagement, recruit the creative agency and plan implementation of the new brand. The result was a new positioning and identity which captures the unique bond between pets and people.

Ambition Institute supports teachers and school leaders to shape the future of education, and the future of every child. The charity was changing and growing, expanding its reach and impact and building on its reputation for thought-leadership. I developed a new brand strategy to support these ambitious plans. The work included:

• developing a new brand positioning and narrative
• target audience definition and testing with key audiences
• market positioning and competitor analysis
• new tone of voice and imagery approach

The Connection at St Martin’s supports people sleeping rough in the heart of London. The charity had evolved their services to focus on the people who need them most, and they needed to update their messaging to reflect that. They also wanted to increase the impact of their communications, reaching a wider audience and growing their income and influence.

Working closely with stakeholders across the charity, I helped them to identify the ingredients that make the organisation special, as well as analysing their competitive context and market position. I developed their brand positioning and narrative, focused around a core idea: find the way home. With a defined brand personality, and supporting messaging for all their key audiences, they can now tell a clear, consistent and memorable story about who they are and what they do.

The final stage of the project was a full review of their marketing and communications strategy and a set of recommendations for developing it further, including target audiences, integrated planning, brand roll-out, and content strategy.