2016 Silver Charity

Agency Field Day

Client ARUK

Campaign summary A brain with Alzheimer’s weighs 140g less than a healthy brain – 140g is the same weight as an orange

Campaign overview

Previous campaign work took ARUK from 25th to 8th most recognisable charity in the UK.

With increased awareness of the charity achieved, the task was to create a shareable, emotionally arresting animation that would create understanding and have life beyond the campaign activity.

Strategy

The brain of a person with Alzheimer’s weighs 140g less than a healthy person’s.

This visual comparison was instantly understandable: that Alzheimer’s is a disease - not an inevitable part of aging.

For the widest reach possible, a creative, impactful call to action was required for people to share the video, to enable identification of those who interacted with the campaign to be targeted further.

The target audience was people who don’t fully understand Alzheimer’s. By making sharing via YouTube and Facebook intrinsic to the idea, people were encouraged to target this ignorance.

But to create real talkability and get more press coverage, something else was needed to make the work stand out. So charities’ biggest assets - their celebrity supporters - were enlisted.

Creativity

A partnership with Aardman Animation visualised the effects of Alzheimer’s on the brain, using the ‘orange’ concept.

The film had to live beyond the campaign and be simple and educational. Christopher Eccleston, a fervent ARUK supporter, voiced the work.

The 90 second animation and live action film was launched on 18 January 2016 on Facebook, YouTube and the ARUK website. The campaign was also covered by the BBC and Huffington post.

With a direct, clear call to action to make advocates of existing supporters, the film was easily sharable on Facebook and social media.

Awareness of ARUK now combines with a deeper understanding of Alzheimer’s as a disease. In doing so ARUK has created a far more engaged and educated public who, in their understanding, can champion the cause and now are far more likely to donate to fund future ground breaking research.

Results

The film has been watched 11,078,243 times and shared 562,866 times.

Community reach of #sharetheorange was 1,055,226. When the campaign launched, ARUK saw a doubling in regular donors, the lifeblood of any charity.

The four weeks post-campaign launch saw requests for information packs increase almost seven-fold compared to the previous month.

ARUK’s corporate partners embraced the campaign. Wickes created their own orange based content. Richard Branson tweeted his support of the campaign and wrote an in-depth blog post of the importance of investing in Alzheimer’s research.

With the reach and popularity of the campaign, ARUK created a far more engaged and educated public.

Team

Geoff Gower (Executive Creative Director) • Kevin Bratley (Creative Director) • Sarah-Jane Stratford (Executive Strategy Director) • Katherine Barnett (Planner) • Louise Johnson (Producer) • Magda Osinska (Director and Animator) • Lindsay Weir (Producer) • Sam Morris (DOP) • Nat Sale (Lighting and Camera Man) • Adam Cook (Camera Assistant) • Entry Entwistle (Rigger) • Bram Ttwheam (Pre Post/Grade) • Paule Quinton (Post Artist) • Fernando Lechuga (Compositor) • Jean-Marc Petsas (Composer) • Laura Izzard (Sound Editor) • Dan Hembery (Editor) • Benjamin Craske (Editor)

Contributors

Aardman Animation (Production Company)