Like most charities, Age UK’s predominant marketing channels are through direct response ads driving donations. In fact, when we started talking to them about this idea they had never done a brand campaign on TV before. With so many good causes all vying for attention, Age UK were struggling for a share of voice, plus with no retained creative agency and a limited budget, the challenge of communicating messaging about the problem of loneliness was a difficult one.
Tackling loneliness at Christmas with Age UK
The Big Idea
We thought a great way to get people thinking about loneliness at Christmas was to get the antipathy of loneliness to discuss it. June and Leon Bernicoff are arguably, thanks to the success of Gogglebox, the best loved older couple in the UK. The programme itself promotes company and interaction – you never see someone on Gogglebox watching TV on their own!
We created an ad developed in partnership with the producer Studio Lambert and media agency MG OMD which saw June and Leon reacting to Age UK's advert. The much-loved TV stars were shown in their living room watching the advert together commenting on the plight of the million older people who can go a month without speaking to anyone. Caroline Ahern provided the voice over for the ad; its integration with the show was seamless, and it aired during the first ad break of Gogglebox on Channel 4. It then featured throughout the next three episodes, including the Gogglebox Christmas Day special.
Making it Happen
Getting this campaign together was a mammoth collaborative effort involving the production company, PR teams, creative & media agencies, clients, journalists and of course the stars June & Leon. Time was short to get this made and approval was received just 4 weeks prior to going on air – which meant we had one single day window for filming all content. We used the Channel 4 social feed to co-promote activity and Twitter was full of people responding to our content and wanting to share and take part. Through organic social reach the advert achieved many more views than just the TV spot with 973k views on Facebook and 56k views on Twitter.
The Results
Overall this was Age UK’s most successful campaign ever. Results exceeded previous Age UK campaigns with advertising awareness was up 91% (61% vs 32%) with over 700 pieces of PR coverage delivered, which was over 10x the previous campaign.
The advert was the most recognised (84% awareness) and supported (68%) campaign by both Government and opposition MPs and unsolicited donations were up 63%. Volunteer enquiries rocketed – delivering 15,000+ in two months, more than the previous 18 months combined. To top it all off, Age UK even received a call from Number 10 recognising the campaign and took an opportunity to invite ten older people to attend a special lunch hosted by the Prime Minister.
