The National Trust for Scotland is Scotland’s largest conservation charity – and it has an ambitious target to grow membership from 380,000 to 490,000 by 2023. This growth will not come from pensioners and bake sales, but from new types of families, with new passions and priorities. As such we need to create content for the families of today who are the members of tomorrow.

In 2018, we relaunched the Trust’s membership magazine with a new cross-platform content strategy and a design based on their new brand identity. We worked with the Trust to get across its key messages and create content that engages their community of members. The solution that we came up was built completely around the Trust, from their use of language and tone of voice to their fonts, colour palette and choice of paper stocks. This resulted in a magazine and online content that was consistent with everything that the Trust produced and was distinct from other membership organisations in Scotland.

In 2019, the Trust began a partnership with the international supermarket chain Lidl. The most visible part of this partnership was a new quarterly publication, The Lidl Book of Big Adventures, which was made available in every Lidl store in Scotland and at Trust properties. Think created all of this content, successfully balancing the two brands and creating a publication that families greatly enjoy.

By commissioning this new content, the Trust has increased its visibility to Lidl customers and added visitors through the use of an accompanying sticker sheet that is only available at Trust properties. Meanwhile, Lidl has been promoted to Trust members through sponsorship of the publication, drawing customers to stores via a £2 money-off voucher incorporated into copies distributed at Trust properties.