16 Feb 2021
Client: WE WILL youth mental health campaign group (Ewanrigg Local Trust) JUST LISTEN film. See previous case study on WE WILL for further background.
Brief: Promote JUST LISTEN, a short animation made by the group, designed to show people how to listen better… quickly adapted to suit a newly locked down COVID-19 environment!
Description: Following on the back of their successful film ‘BOY’ in 2019, which achieved a reach of over 500,000 through various channels, as well as interest from Duke & Duchess of Cambridge and a collaboration with CBBC on a Newsround Special (which was presented by Molly Robinson, a founding member of the group and featured other members) the group were ready to launch JUST LISTEN, when Covid-19 hit. Our carefully thought out campaign which featured visits to employers & businesses, community groups and schools, as well as cinema screenings and presentations, all came to a standstill.
We identified that the issue of youth mental health was going to be more important than ever and although we couldn’t deliver our key messages through business and schools, we had to still get the message out to the right people… who were all now at home…
We had to quickly review plans and develop a digital campaign that could be executed from my home, direct to other people’s homes; still putting the group front and centre but needing no social contact or face to face meetings.
We asked each member of the group to create a short video clip to explain why listening mattered to them, and asked key community figures to do supporting clips (including North West Ambulance personnel, police officers, school governors, business leaders, health commissioners, Marcia Reid Fotheringham and other community personalities). The film clips were released daily on social media (FB; Twitter and Instagram) over a period of two weeks. Each clip signposted to the JUST LISTEN film and the campaign grew each day.
With the combined power of the group supporting on social media, as well as partners and advocates, some of the individual film clips achieved a reach of over 17,000. A single pinned tweet of the JUST LISTEN film clocked up over 9,000 individual views over a matter of days.
The digital campaign was backed up with PR activity which resulted in an appearance on ITV Border News and a plug on Good Morning Britain.
Our JUST LISTEN campaign (on Twitter) also caught the attention of the Mental Health Foundation organisation who runs Mental Health Awareness Week and a member of the group was asked to speak on BBC Radio Cumbria alongside one of their representatives.
Overall, the JUST LISTEN campaign reached over one million people during May 2020.
The JUST LISTEN film has been used in staff training for the North West Ambulance teams, has been included in a council led initiative delivering resources to parents / schools across the county and has been played at National Big Tent events. The group are receiving media requests on a regular basis.
The group are currently planning future activity in what is a vastly different, socially distanced world. It continues to be a thoroughly rewarding and equally challenging client project, identifying opportunities and developing new routes to market in an ever-changing environment. (Wouldn’t have it any other way!)
To view the film JUST LISTEN click here:
Client testimonial from Kate Whitmarsh, Development Officer at Ewanrigg Local Trust:
“Marketing and communication has been an integral part of the WE WILL campaign from day one, from actually understanding what a campaign is, to being able to articulate messages that get viewed by thousands of people – members of WE WILL continue to learn vital skills from Rachel. These skills are essential for young people who want to be heard in order to make a tangible difference in their society. Rachel has helped WE WILL to keep ‘upping their game’ to the point whereby young people from Ewanrigg are invited back to chair meetings in Westminster and the BBC regularly ask for the group for a quote when youth mental health hits the headlines. More importantly ‘upping the game’ for WE WILL is receiving (regular) feedback from local parents, teachers and health workers such as ‘thank you, I now feel better able to speak to and help young people having watched your film’.
None of the group’s impact would have been possible without Rachel’s highly skilled and experienced contribution. She has a keen eye to recognise an opportunity and always keeps us on track – focusing attention in the areas that are likely to be most productive. Working with a group of young people who all have a huge number of commitments means that co-ordination is hard. Rachel has been happy to work flexibly to accommodate their needs, and has often worked long, unsociable hours to ensure that the activity happens as and when it needs to. Her attention to detail and ability to plan ahead has enabled us to follow effective action plans that delivers results in a targeted and timely manner. Rachel has taken the time to fully understand the needs of the group, identifying strengths and assets, and working out how they can be best used to highlight campaign messages. Switching to a digital based campaign in May 2020 was a huge challenge, but ultimately an incrediblly positive measure, something that we couldn’t have done without her responsiveness, vision, skills and commitment.
Rachel has been able to take the group’s creativity and ideas and turn them into a practical, deliverable, measurable and strategic campaign which got results. Her understanding of audiences and ability to shape messages into a targeted piece of content has enabled us to raise awareness across multiple sectors. We’ve loved working with Rachel and would highly recommend her to others.”