Case study
The goal of the “Unforgettable People” campaign was to evoke powerful emotions and significantly raise awareness for Newcastle Hospitals Charity, highlighting the deep connections between loved ones and life-saving medical professionals. The campaign was strategically aligned with the Channel 4 Geordie Hospital television programme to give maximum exposure.
Our client wanted an awareness campaign that would touch the hearts of the region and, at the same time, support and celebrate the achievements of our amazing NHS staff.
The campaign’s core objectives were to increase emotional engagement with the charity, raise its public profile, and demonstrate the charity’s support of NHS staff. Through our ongoing relationship, we recognised a need at Newcastle Hospitals Charity that hadn’t yet been formally identified and developed a concept to address it.
Now armed with a concept that we truly believed in, the next step was sharing it with NHC, who, owing to existing priorities, proved extraordinarily difficult to meet. Refusing to give up when several meetings were cancelled, we emailed over a scripted video pitch, so that NHC could see the idea at their convenience, without attending a meeting.
An integrated promotional campaign was created including digital 48 sheets billboards, a digital gateway banner above Newcastle Central Motorway, and newspaper advertising. Impactful videos were produced where loved ones shared life-saving stories, emphasising the crucial role of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals staff. Videos were posted across various social media channels for maximum exposure.
Linking directly to our core objectives, we developed key messages that reflected the lifelong impact staff at Newcastle Hospitals can have.
“Unforgettable” relied on authentic storytelling to emotionally engage viewers, pairing real-life patients and families with the NHS staff who cared for them, emphasising their unique, unforgettable bonds. To strengthen the connection between the audience and the campaign, unscripted recording sessions were conducted with parents of child patients allowing raw, genuine emotions to shine through, with subsequent postproduction ensuring the videos remained tight and engaging.
Whilst developing the campaign, we conducted research to understand the current positioning and awareness of the charity amongst regional audiences.
The campaign targeted the general public, particularly those with personal or familial connections to the NHS, and sought to highlight the emotional bonds formed between healthcare workers, patients, and families. Featuring real stories from real people, the campaign capitalised on the region’s strong community values and admiration for the NHS.
As a key audience group were NHS staff, the concept of reuniting those individuals featured in the campaign posed particular challenges with access to personnel and time. We, therefore, always worked around the schedules of the NHS staff to ensure minimal disruption, and met, where possible, at the hospital to ensure important commitments were prioritised.
