A homelessness charity laid 'Reserved' towels on Birmingham's pavement hotspots

Christmas and cold nights bring out public generosity; summer doesn't. The charity needed year-round funds for its Support Centre — the city's central hub offering health clinics, housing advice, hot meals, showers and laundry.

Beach towels printed 'Reserved' — laid out not on sunbeds but in the city's homelessness hotspots, each one a tangible reminder that homelessness doesn't take a holiday.

Created with agency One Black Bear: 'Reserved' towels placed across Birmingham's homelessness hotspots, backed by premium donated OOH media across the city from Ocean Outdoor, with SLAM Productions donating photography, filming and retouching.

No results figures were reported. The campaign aimed to remind the public that homelessness 'won't simply fly away when they do' and to raise funds for SIFA's year-round work.

While Christmas and cold nights bring out the warmth of human kindness, the same can't be said for summer — as if homelessness becomes less significant when the weather is pleasant. Birmingham-based charity SIFA Fireside, founded in the 1980s, was finding that donations dried up in exactly those months.

Agency One Black Bear answered with a summer-native symbol: 'Reserved' towels. Rather than popping down on sunbeds, the towels appeared around the city in homelessness hotspots — each a tangible reminder that homelessness doesn't take a holiday.

The OOH campaign ran on premium media space donated by Ocean Outdoor across the city, with SLAM Productions contributing photography, filming and retouching. The goal: raise funds so SIFA can continue its work year round — health clinics, housing advice, financial planning, hot meals, showers, clothing and laundry at its Support Centre, the city's central hub for adults facing or at risk of homelessness.

The towel borrows summer's own icon and re-deploys it on the pavement, where rough sleepers actually 'reserve' their spot.

It attacks the specific problem — seasonal donation dips — instead of asking for generic awareness.

The production model matters too: media, photography and retouching all donated, stretching a charity's budget.

Seasonal empathy has a calendar: when your cause peaks in winter, summer is the moment to make it visible again with an object people already associate with the other season.

The campaign ran across Birmingham in summer 2023; LBB reported no fundraising figures with the launch.