Case study – Objective: Change minds
Through pioneering research the British Heart Foundation is leading the fight against the UK’s single biggest killer, coronary heart disease.
In order to achieve its ambitious target of spending £500 million on research by 2020, the charity needed to challenge perceptions of heart disease and inspire support and donations.
Most people see the disease as preventable and think it’ll never happen to ’someone like me’. In a bid to change this and make people aware that it could strike anyone at any time, the BHF partnered with The Sun to disrupt people’s everyday routine and create as much impact as possible.
Working closely with The Sun’s editorial team, the BHF delivered highly contextual, bespoke messages around news articles, as well as removing some of the newspaper’s most-read sections – including the sports pages and TV listings. In place of the usual content, stark messages brought home the unpredictability of heart disease.
Using similar creative, the messages ran across OOH placements including bus shelters, across coffee cups and cinema tickets, in taxis and on toilet mirrors. The campaign was also supported by TV and digital display ads.
Key findings
- 58% of Sun readers recalled seeing the British Heart Foundation ads
- 23% said that they would consider donating to the British Heart Foundation as a result of the ads
- 21% of readers talked about the ads with friends and family
- Post-campaign, the British Heart Foundation increased its spontaneous awareness by 13%
This campaign was great because the team had cottoned on to a genuinely human insight. It was something that we could all identify with.
Clare Chapman, head of planning, Maxus
