Jesuit refugee service's (JRS) concerts for refugees tour branding

WHO?

The number of refugees, asylum-seekers and other displaced persons exceeded 65 million globally in 2016, and the average length of displacement for a refugee is 17 years. JRS is an organization that provides crucial refugee education programs globally, as they believe that an education is the one thing you cannot take away from a person, and that it allows people the best chance to thrive through their displacement. 

JRS needed help to raise awareness around the catastrophic refugee crisis and change the narrative around what has become a politicized and negative issue. To do this, the JRS USA team wanted to create a powerful and uplifting concert series, featuring iconic musicians to perform an 11-stop concert tour in major cities across the U.S. in 2016 and an 8-stop tour in 2017. Their hopes were to help raise funds in order to double their education efforts by the year 2020.

WHAT?

Along with corp comms strategists and research leads, I helped to create messaging and a powerful narrative that would best connect with targeted audience goers, after which I led my creative team to brand a concert tour, named Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees. We created the logo, various videos to be shown at the beginning of each concert and for promotional use, the brochure handed out to all attendees and other pieces of communication for their social properties.

SO WHAT?

Our work generated national and local media coverage about the concert series in leading national publications, and in total, the concert series generated more than 320 million media impressions globally. The 2016 concerts raised more than $725,000 for JRS education programs, far exceeding JRS's goals. 

And to determine if the concerts generated greater awareness and understanding for the refugee crisis, we surveyed three key audiences:

1. Concert goers

2. Residents in major U.S. cities where the concerts took place

3. A representative sample of individuals who live outside the areas that hosted the concerts

As we had hoped, the concerts had a significant impact on attendees’ perceptions, with 81% of attendees saying the concerts had improved their understanding of the refugee crisis, and 98% saying they are now willing to take action to support refugees.

This work culminated in our team receiving the award from PR News in the Diversity & Inclusion campaign category.

NOW WHAT?

Because the creative was so well received, the international office, which oversees all of JRS's regional offices, requested a contract renewal for my team to rebrand their organization in order to connect with newer audiences. I have been leading an international rebrand for about a year now, throughout which I've led brand workshops with JRS leadership, conducted comparative analyses, rewrote more modern and differentiating positioning and mission statements and hope to finalize the visual identity system soon.

Logo explorations

Final logo 

Educational concert brochure

Concert poster art using final branding

Post concert "thank you" ad in Billboard magazine