Inspiring Women 2019: Global campaign identity, multilingual rollout and website design
C&A may no longer be on the UK high street, but globally it remains a major retailer. Each year, the C&A Foundation runs an internal campaign designed to inspire colleagues to take part in a shared initiative. The theme and entry criteria changes annually, but the outcome is consistent: a colleague-led programme that supports NGOs around the world.
Engagement and impact at scale
€1.97M raised for NGOs
64% employee participation
61,885 participants worldwide
Enhancing employee engagement
Working closely with the marketing team at Incorporate Design, my role was to translate each year’s theme into a visual identity that stayed true to the brand, while connecting with employees across a wide range of cultures and markets. A constant consideration was localisation, as every design needed to hold together when translated across markets with very different language structures.
Since 2015, the ‘Inspiring’ campaigns have contributed to increased participation and have helped strengthen employees’ connection to C&A and its initiatives.
I worked on four consecutive campaigns.
The brief
Create a campaign identity and toolkit that could be used consistently across multiple countries and channels, with designs that remained clear and engaging once translated into more than 20 languages.
For 2019, the Inspiring Women campaign encouraged colleagues to pledge time to an activity that benefited their local community. Participants then uploaded a photo or film to the campaign site, triggering a donation to one of three country-specific NGOs.
The challenge
This was a genuinely global rollout. The creative needed to be recognisable across many markets and cultures, flexible across formats, and structured in a way that worked across languages with varying text lengths.
At the same time, the campaign needed to motivate participation from a large and diverse workforce, many of whom were time-poor and working in fast-paced retail environments.
The approach
I developed a theme-led visual concept that worked within the C&A brand guidelines, while still feeling distinct, energetic and campaign-specific. The system was designed to scale across formats and languages, using clear hierarchy and balanced composition to maintain clarity in every version.
Alongside the identity and toolkit, I led the website wireframing and visual direction in Adobe XD to ensure the user journey from landing through to participation felt intuitive and engaging.
What I delivered
– Visual concept and campaign identity for the annual theme
– Brand guardianship and art direction across print and digital assets
– Multilingual artwork across more than 20 language versions
– Website design and wireframing in Adobe XD
– Art direction of the web development team to ensure consistency through to build
Impact
The C&A Foundation’s annual campaigns are designed to drive real engagement and measurable contribution, and the programme has consistently delivered strong results across global audiences:
– €1,973,440 raised for NGOs to support beneficiaries around the world since 2016
– 64% average participation rate, significantly exceeding the Fortune 500 benchmark of 21%
– 61,885 participants across the 2016 to 2018 campaigns
These figures demonstrate the scale and effectiveness of the campaign model, and the importance of creating design systems that are clear, motivating and accessible across international teams. The campaign demonstrates how strong visual storytelling and clear user journeys can directly support engagement and participation at scale.
Outcome
A cohesive campaign identity and multi-channel toolkit that could be rolled out globally with confidence. The design system was built to support localisation, maintain strong brand consistency, and guide users clearly from campaign message through to participation.