Be sun safe on site.
Sadly and shockingly, 55% of all skin cancer patients are construction workers. To raise awareness and trigger action, Cancer Research UK teamed up with HSS Hire to do something about the problem.
There are already a lot of health and safety messages on building sites, so we were tasked with making one that would really stand out over the others.
Using photochromic ink, we created specially built posters which only delivered their danger message when exposed to sunlight: a blood-red skull appearing on a featureless face as constant reminder to be sun safe on site.
The multi award-winning posters were a world first and displayed around the Sir Robert McAlpine, Bloomsbury development in London reaching over 2,200 building contractors every single day.
Agency: Havas Lynx, Manchester.
An uncomfortable watch.
Everyday life for psoriasis patients can be pretty uncomfortable. So we wanted to show that we not only understand the condition but also how the constant itch can make patients feel.
Our difficult to watch video demonstrated our empathy and also drove patients to seek the help they needed from their dermatologist.
Agency: VCCP Health, London.
Balancing act.
Words only hurt or offend if you suspect that they could be true. So a doting father who does everything for his kids, would look at this ad and not recognise himself in it.
But someone who drinks too much and suspects drinking might be affecting his family life is more likely to sit up, take notice and engage with the drink awareness programme. Which is exactly what the outcome was.
Striking a balance.
Heavy drinkers don’t take advice too kindly. They don’t really care what it does to their health therefore shock tactics can aim wide of the mark.
So what if they could see what their behaviour looked like through the eyes of their loved ones? Would they listen then?
With record engagement in the programme, apparently so.
TV Campaign.
We were told by the client that our TV ads ‘mam’ and ‘dad’ really struck a chord and the response to the website during the time the TV was aired was amazing.
It won a number of Roses and IPA Best of Health awards so I guess it struck a chord with quite a few awards juries too.
Radio.
By using brutally frank ‘Clinton Cards’ type poetry narrated by children we helped heavy drinkers seek advice and take steps to cutting down. It worked to great effect.
It also worked on a panel of awards judges and earned a much coveted Radio Advertising Award.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
Cut your units. Cut your risk.
Way before the Government decided to put diseased organs on fag packets to urge smokers to consider quitting, this gruesome campaign for Balance North East Alcohol Office and the NHS was created.
Some people found it really off-putting, which was the desired effect for drinkers who damage their health through drinking too much.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
Disability Discrimination Act. COI.
In 1995 The Government established the Disability Discrimination Act to ensure that anyone with a disability was not discriminated against at work.
As part of an update to legislation, we were asked to communicate the changes to the act. The TV ad demonstrated how employees had the right to request reasonable adjustments from their employers and what to do about it if they felt employees could do more.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
This campaign backed by the British Chiropractic Association literally took on a whole new angle for them. With images taken from the perspective of people lying on their back, the message was simple. If this is the predicament you’re in, we’re here to help.
Agency: FPP Design.
Rudyard Kipling's poem IF sums up life like no one else can.
And this in-house ad pretty much sums up what some people's life in an advertising agency is like. Have a read. You might recognise yourself or someone else you know somewhere.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
This campaign was based around a laser focused piece of insight which linked healthy school meals to better brain activity among children.
The “School Dinners Make Winners” became our catchy playground slogan and the resulting campaign created a phenomenal 66% rise in school dinner uptake and probably helped most kids become geniuses (ok maybe not).
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
Way before the Government decided to put diseased organs on fag packets to urge smokers to consider quitting, this gruesome campaign for Balance North East Alcohol Office and the NHS was created.
Some people found it really off-putting, which was the desired effect for drinkers who damage their health by drinking too much.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
As part of a fireworks safety awareness campaign around November the 5th, wouldn’t it be a good idea to send a team of people to a busy shopping street armed with leaflets promoting firework safety.
And even better, use professional make-up artists to artificially scar these people on their faces, necks, arms and hands (they were like a subtle version of the Walking Dead but a lot friendlier).
The results worked to great effect. And emergency call outs decreased by 34% from the previous year.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
"The most successful launch in psoriasis"
PROBLEM
People with psoriasis have given up. They’ve spent years trying to find a treatment that gives them clear skin – without success.
But at last, with recent advances from Novartis, clear skin is finally possible. Question is, how do you inspire a group of people that have lost hope?
SOLUTION
We showed what clear skin really means. It’s getting your life back. It’s reclaiming everything psoriasis has taken from you. Friendship. Family. Intimacy. And doing that was as simple as asking a question.
RESULTS
- 12 million activated in 3 months
- 2,500 people a day used the derm finder in Germany, a conversation rate of 33%
- 44% of dermatologists said patients visited because of the campaign
- 80,000 patients put on new treatments
- The most successful launch in psoriasis
Agency: Havas Lynx, Manchester.
Lord SugarFree
To raise awareness for diabetes around World Diabetes Day. We decided to attempt to turn Lord Sugar into Lord SugarFree (well, his twitter name at least).
We created a parody Twitter account of Lord Sugar (Lord SugarFree) and started a social media campaign doing two things; to tweet healthy advice about the benefits of going sugar free from the voice of Lord Sugar-Free, and to urge our engaged audience to join a change.org online petition to put pressure on big Alan to change his twitter name for World Diabetes Day.
We also created a website containing sugar-free recipes from Davina McCall, links to Jamie Oliver's Sugar Rush TV series and the Sugar Smart App.
The Twitter account engaged over 1000 Twitter users and grew organically as it developed a group of loyal Twitter fans who latched on to the idea.
Has he done it yet? Not yet. But we have raised a few eyebrows and gained a pretty staunch following trying so far.
Agency: Havas Lynx, Manchester.
Gardening on a grand scale.
How do you create a stir and promote Northumberland’s biggest visitor attraction?
You stick a 20 foot rake leaning against a poster and hope that no one crashes their car as they drive past saying “what the…”.
Then when that rake keeps being stolen and retrieved more times than we care to remember. The papers start to write about it. So it gains free national publicity reaching far, far more people than it was ever expected to.
The garden celebrated three big wins at this year’s North East Tourism Awards further securing Northumberland as the North East’s top spot for Tourism.
Agency: FPP Design.
Hammerite were famous for their quick drying paint. But cheaper imitation brands were slowly taking chunks of their market share. So the challenge was to take action and reaffirm their market leading position.
In collaboration with a local Council parks department, we supplied them with Hammerite quick drying paint at a reduced cost for a small favour. Instead of using their ‘Wet Paint’ signs, they usually used on their freshly painted ironwork, they used our specially created ‘Dry Paint’ ones.
Agecny: FPP Design.
INOV8 are like the Land Rover of running shoes. They're made for extreme runners who take exercise to the next level by running up and down mountains, over hills and across rivers.
The resulting campaign was a success and recognised creatively. It featured in Luerzer's International Archive magazine and won a Fresh Grand Prix award.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
The UKs most flexible network.
O2 are very proud of their credentials of being the UKs most flexible network. So they wanted to practice what they preach.
To help them amplify this accolade, we created a set of social videos to demonstrate their most flexible offers to their business customers.
Agency: Virgin Media O2 Business.
The big analogue switch-off.
The big analogue switch-off has already started, with phone companies moving from analogue to digital. So for businesses using this technology, the clock is ticking.
Our aim was to create an intriguing social media campaign to stop procrastination and generate reaction. The approach led to customers clicking through to a landing page with all of the information they needed to know about how their business could be impacted if they didn’t act soon.
It became a huge success and resulted in a 72% increase of customers signing up for tech consultations on the double.
Agency: Virgin Media O2 Business.
BT.
Digital engagement programme.
This campaign was created for BT ad as part of a digital engagement programme aimed at getting the nation up-to-speed with digital technology.
To bolster the ad we also created loads of digital tactics and events from coding sessions to digital skills workshops.
Agency: Wunderman, London.
Sage Teamwork film
As part of a campaign to underpin the importance of tech to help boost collaboration within global businesses, we wanted to show is as so much more than just a business tool. And decided to turn the camera on ourselves.
The film showed very truthful, real and emotional stories from the in- house marketing team. It highlighted the affects of isolation during lock-down and shone a light on how technology really helped bring us closer together. Our connection became stronger, we met more, we shared our challenges and pulled together to make things work.
And even though we were sitting in St Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta and North East England, we were also just at the end of a phone for each other and closer than ever.
Agency: Sage.
The problem with the Harley Davidson café in Edinburgh was that the real leather-clad Harley enthusiasts steered well clear of it because of an unsubstantiated rumour about it being full of wedged-up businessmen having a midlife crisis.
It wasn’t true, so were asked to set the record straight and make sure that every easy rider loving biker would give it a try. Soon it became the perfect place to grab a bite and talk about horsepower with old and new friends.
Agency: FPP Design.
Agency: THG.
Agency: THG.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
Agency: Yellow M.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
Agency: Different, Newcastle.
Agency: THG.
