For 2020 Children in Need wanted to take a different strategy and focus on more of a brand message than the traditional fundraising one. Using emotion and storytelling was going to cut through more in a year where people were experiencing charity fatigue. 

That’s how we came to the idea of ‘Goodbye Rainclouds’, a storybook style film that follows three children who each try to get rid of a raincloud that won’t leave them alone.  It is only with the help of some unexpected heroes, Children in Need project workers, that they can move past their struggles. 

We were able to base these characters on real project workers (and one dog!) who work for three of the charities. With children’s book author and illustrator Tom Percival we sat down with these project workers to listen to their stories and lives so we could bring them to life in the animation- from what make of wheelchair kids would use playing wheelchair football to knowing about the red van that delivered food boxes to families in Scotland. Flow animation studios animated Tom’s drawings creating the world of our animation, topped off with a score by Alex Baranowski and narrated by Sara Pascoe.

The film and assets sat across TV, cinema, social, as bespoke channel idents, teasers, in OOH display screens and on the Children in Need website and all their marketing materials.

The nation rallied round and the total made for Children in Need was £41million, not bad for a year when people couldn’t leave their houses.