The Consumer Credit Counselling Service has today embarked on a massive advertising campaign coinciding with its rebrand as StepChange Debt Charity in an attempt to draw more people to its service.

With wraparound advertisements in today’s Financial Times, as well as adverts in the Guardian, Daily Mail and the Daily Express StepChange is attempting to significantly boost the profile of its free debt services. The re-brand attempts to increase the number of people contacting StepChange – presently around 400,000 a year – and is in response to the changing nature and experience of debt, with payday loans and overdrafts becoming increasing problems for increasing numbers of people.

The advertising campaign will be ongoing, and will also run on television, online and on the radio.

“We aim to raise our profile considerably,” a spokeswoman told civilsociety.co.uk. While not specifying the cost of the campaign, she said: “We see it as an investment.”

It is the first time the charity has set out on a campaign of this type and size, and it will be monitoring progress as it goes on. “From now on, this will be the way the charity operates,” said the spokeswoman.

The campaign will not feature asks for donations or other fundraising messages, she said, but is very much focused on reaching more people and ensuring that those in debt trouble don’t wait too long to seek advice. The charity announced its planned name-change last month.

StepChange Debt Charity chief executive Gordon Bell said that the charity plans to combine advice with advocacy. “Not only will StepChange Debt Charity work to ensure that everyone who needs help with debt is aware of the free advice and solutions that we provide, we will speak up for all who are affected by problem debt, right across society,” he said. “We will contribute to policy development and campaign for change wherever our knowledge and experience shows that its needed.”

The charity is funded by lenders, which repay StepChange a donation from the money which the organisation helps get repaid to them. Income at the organisation for last year was £33.6m, nearly all of which was raised via charitable activities.