Fancy a brew? Purple give back to the local community

Here at Purple Agency, we’re no strangers to seeking out opportunities to help those in need, and a main focus of our corporate social responsibility is to give back to our local community in various ways. When I joined Purple back in August and was offered the chance to help with a Giving Back initiative, I was excited to take part and really intrigued to see what this involved.

It all started when the Purple B2B team were working on a client project where the main focus was to educate heating installers about the charity association ‘Band of Builders’. As the project gathered speed, we were impressed with the work the charity was doing and wondered if there was a way we could also help by giving Band of Builders some of our time to help drive their campaign forward.

Band of Builders is a UK registered charity founded by tradespeople, for tradespeople, who offer professional help and advice for those in the construction industry who are going through a tough time. Band of Builders’ aim over the last few months has been to raise awareness of the charity, and to get tradespeople talking about any issues they face in their lives. To do this, they created a campaign called ‘The Big Brew’ and encouraged those in the industry to chat about their problems over a casual cuppa. To help Band of Builders raise their profile, the Purple team created various concepts and assets to promote these events.

The Big Brew events are specially run coffee mornings, held at plumbing and heating supplier stores, where tradespeople can attend to hear more about the charity, and seek advice in a secure and familiar setting. I was able to attend one of these events and heard first-hand how the charity is helping out.

Lucas, an employee at Graham Plumbers Merchant – a venue where the Big Brew was being held – explained how being able to host Big Brews within the store provided a valuable opportunity for tradespeople to open up about the stresses they face in their work, in an environment where they felt safe and comfortable. ‘Due to the industry, many tradespeople can go days without having a proper conversation, as a lot of the time they work alone, making it an extremely isolating industry. In addition to this, the pandemic has placed even more stress on tradespeople, as they haven’t been able to work and therefore have often faced financial issues – which for some can just get too much to handle.’

But hosting these Big Brew events, and providing information on the help that Band of Builders can provide, creates conversation around the issue and acts as one small step that can have a large impact for those in need. These events, as well as promotional work on the Band of Builders website and social media, are helping to spread the message of what the charity can do to help people in the trade, and really aim to let tradespeople know that whatever troubles they may be facing, there is support and help out there.

Attending the Big Brew event, and working closely with the team on the creative assets, I can see how this simple activity could have a ripple effect of providing help and advice to those who need it, who may not naturally reach out for help. Having the opportunity to be involved in this project has been incredibly rewarding as I was able to hear first-hand how the assets we created, and the support that Purple provided, can be incredibly useful to a wide variety of people. And if it helps just one person in their time of need, it really does make it worthwhile.

If you’d like to hear more about the fundraising events that Band of Builders are hosting, or would like to apply for help, please visit their website here: https://www.bandofbuilders.org/

To find out more about Purple, or to join our team, please visit our website: purple.agency or contact us at hello@purple.agency.

Laura Bessant is a Senior Account Executive at the Purple Agency and is part of the B2B team. Laura’s background of work has allowed her to gain solid agency experience working across a range of clients from security technology and finance, to fashion and beauty.