200 Years Transforming Lives

15th March 2018

200 Years Transforming Seafarers' Lives

This weekend will mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of Sailors' Society. The charity was founded in 1818 to help destitute seafarers. Today they're transforming the lives of seafarers and their families at home, in port, and at sea. With 90% of our consumer goods being brought to us by sea, none of us should be taking seafarers for granted. A seafarer is at sea for an average of nine months at a time. That's a long time with limited connection with family and friends. Sailors' Society keep seafarers and loved ones in touch during long months apart. They'll also liaise with families if a seafarer falls ill or is in trouble. Additionally, the charity build houses, medical centres and classrooms, and provide educational grants to the families of seafarers around the world. In-Port support comes in the form of chaplains and volunteers who visit crews on board ships. They offer a range of support; from lending a friendly ear to transport into town. In response to an understanding of health and well-being issues faced by people at sea, the charity have developed a groundbreaking Wellness at Sea training programme with an accompanying Wellness app. The programme and the app help to equip seafarers for a life at sea. Wellness at Sea focuses on five key areas of wellness; spiritual, emotional, physical, intellectual and social well-being. You can read more about how and where Sailors' Society are working here. We find ourselves becoming passionate about the work of our charity clients. It's not difficult to become inspired by people working so hard to improve the lives of others. Our clients' own passion and enthusiasm tends to be pretty infectious and, as we already care about people and the planet, we love hearing more about how the charities we work with are delivering life-transforming services all over the globe. We have thoroughly enjoyed partnering with the Media and Advocacy Team, the Commercial Team, and the Fundraising Team at Sailors' Society to enhance their on and offline engagement opportunities with supporters, potential supporters, and media outlets. We've been part of Sailors' Society's digital transformation for a few years now; having first delivered awareness, engagement, and data capture campaigns, before moving on to redeveloping their website. We have also worked closely together on the development of their By Sea coffee brand and e-commerce site. When we were asked to create a campaign to celebrate the 200th year of Sailors' Society our creative juices really started to flow. We decided to develop an immersive digital voyage to tell the story of their rich history in a way that people could connect with and easily digest. It is our hope that, at the end of this 200th year, more people would know who Sailors' Society are, why they exist, and have a deeper sense of the transformational nature of their work.