Campaign Film

Centre for Cities is the UK’s leading think tank dedicated to understanding and improving the economic performance of UK cities. Their research informs government policy, urban planning and investment decisions and their ability to communicate complex economic data clearly and persuasively to non-specialist audiences is central to their influence.

As an organisation whose impact depends on reaching beyond academic and policy circles to a broader public and political audience, Centre for Cities needed a film that could carry their message to people who do not read research reports.

Centre for Cities commissioned a short, punchy campaign animation to explain why cities are so important to the UK economy, communicating data and statistics in a format that was fast, engaging and accessible to a general audience.

The brief had a double challenge built in: the subject matter, economic geography, productivity data, urban agglomeration, is inherently technical, but the audience needed to leave the film feeling informed and energised rather than lectured. Humour was not off the table.

We worked within Centre for Cities’ brand style to develop a visual language of animated icons and graphics that could carry economic data without the film ever feeling like a chart presentation. The pace is fast, inspired by the energy of UK city life, with constant movement and transition keeping the viewer’s attention through even the densest information.

The sound design was central to the approach. Rather than a conventional music track, our sound designer built a rich soundscape from the sounds of city life – cars, buses, trains, cheers, bells – creating an aural portrait of urban Britain that ties the whole piece together. It was a decision that gave the film a distinctive texture you would not find in a typical infographic animation.

Humour was woven in carefully, enough to make the film genuinely enjoyable, not so much that it undercut the credibility of the data. Getting that balance right makes a real difference to whether a film gets shared.

A campaign animation that gave Centre for Cities a genuinely shareable piece of public communications content, designed to travel on social media and reach audiences well beyond their existing policy network.

The film demonstrates what thoughtful animation can do for complex information: not just illustrate it, but make it feel alive, relevant and worth passing on to someone else. For think tanks and policy organisations, that shareability is the difference between influencing a conversation and publishing into a vacuum.