2016 Bronze Best customer acquisition campaign

Agency Arthur London

Client Diabetes UK

Campaign summary

Tips for living with diabetes written by other people living with diabetes

Campaign overview

The work sought to increase engagement with Diabetes UK, giving thousands more people access to support and starting them on a journey towards membership.

The result? 100 things I wish I’d known about living with diabetes.

Strategy

People living with diabetes feel isolated and face huge prejudice about their condition.

They want (and need) a support network but don’t know where to turn. They’re tired of their lives being ruled by the advice of medical professionals who they believe have little insight into what living with the condition is really like.

To engage a wider audience, Diabetes UK had to be the ‘voice’ of people living with diabetes. They had to give their audience a waqy to exchange tips for everyday life and ensure the advice was medically correct.

So a campaign to crowdsource the wisdom of the diabetes community was born, using owned and earned media.

The content grew into a free-to-request book, gathering opted-in responder data, before then being marketed with a multichannel campaign: TV and press for reach and frequency, digital and social for costeffective response activation.

Creativity

‘100 things I wish I’d known about living with diabetes’ is a book full of tips.

The campaign was delivered by the people living with diabetes, created from usergenerated content from the tips in the book to the quotes used in broadcasts.

By encouraging people living with diabetes to engage with the campaign (starring in the TV, print and social media campaigns), the charity was able to assert itself as an organisation representing people living with diabetes.

It was an integrated approach to content generation, comms planning, fulfilment and journey. This integration was crucial to the campaign’s success. The ‘buzz’ about the campaign hit lift-off during the contentgathering phase as people contributed their tips via social media and email.

The book was then publicised via TV, print and online display - as well as through Diabetes UK’s owned social media channels.

Results

The campaign maximised the potential of owned, earned and bought digital media and used eCRM to give relevant personalised responder journeys.

Non-digital channels, chosen for their reach, cost and impact, drove response online. Telephony was included to make responding easy for an older audience. Print was chosen to enable address data capture.

The 24,823 target for campaign responses, was smashed with 592% more than forecast. The first TV spot delivered 32,000 responses, unprecedented for any similar campaign in or out of the health charity sector.

Projected targets were achieved in the first week. Overall, there were 592% more responses, 62% more book orders, 574% more new opted-in contacts and double the membership conversion rate.

Team

Claire Sandham (Head of Brand) • Helena Wade (Interim Head of Brand) • Jemma Sullivan (Brand Manager) • Nick Spindler (Brand Planner) • Richard Halliday (Business Director) • Jenny Spindler (Account Manager) • Andy Kelleher (Creative Director) • Nayyar Mughal (Copywriter) • Simon Lane (Art Director) • Sarah Hewson (Senior Account Manager) • Lyndsay McMorrow (Creative Director) • Damian Willett (Head of Design) • Jenn Baxter (Creative Artworker) • Nicky Baker (Creative Services Manager) • Richard Evans (Interim Director of Communications)

Contributors

JAA Media (Media Agency) Royle Productions (Production Company)