2021 Silver Best Launch Campaign | DMA

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2021 Silver Best Launch Campaign

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Agency: MullenLowe Group UK

Client: DHSC, NHS Test and Trace & HM Governmen

Campaign Name: NHS Covid-19 App Launch: Saving lives with an app

Campaign Overview

Academic modelling demonstrated that app technology could help reduce Covid-19 infections - but public cynicism was threatening to derail the launch of the potentially life-saving Covid-19 ap

Strategy

Getting millions to download a government app is not easy. Quantitative survey data told the team that people were worried about privacy, security and efficacy.

The primary fear was that not enough other people would download the app, making it pointless.

This was tackled head-on by leveraging 'herding' - one of the most powerful behavioural science levers. The key insight was that people's primary motivation was to protect their loved ones, so creating the sense that ‘everyone was doing it’ was key.

This produced the overarching strategy, but a core motivator was needed to persuade people - the reason why 'everyone was doing it'.

The insight came from qualitative research and tracking data, which identified the continued importance to people of protecting friends and family.

Creativity

The creative idea built on the strategy with the cultural insight that the people we love the most are the people we have photos of on our phones. If all the people you love are on your phone, so is the app to protect them from Covid-19.

Knowing how critical the first few days of an app launch are, the team implemented a 'thunderclap' launch, leveraging paid, owned and earned channels.

With 'herding' at its heart, it encouraged immediate mass downloads on the first weekend.

ITV talent took part, weaving the download message into editorial and even encouraging people to get their phones out ready for the commercial break.

Mass reach broadcast media presence (TV, digital OOH, print, audio, digital & social) continued the 'herding' theme, with highly emotive ads featuring multiple people from across the country proudly showing photos of their loved ones on their phones.

It resolved with the call to download the Covid-19 app to help protect them by getting the a

Results

The initiative drove 21,072,129 downloads (42% of the adult population) in just three months, exceeding the stretch target.

The Covid-19 app was number two in downloads for 2020, just behind TikTok and ahead of Zoom and WhatsApp.

Scientists from The Alan Turing Institute and Oxford University analysed the societal impact of the NHS Covid-19 app from launch in September to the end of 2020.

They estimate that the app prevented a staggering 594,000 cases of Covid-19 during that time: a further 24% increase in cases overall.

Estimates also suggest the app saved 8,700 lives - and if compared to the period of time that the scientists were modelling, it actually prevented a further 28% increase in deaths during the perio

The Team

MullenLowe Group UK - Tom Knox, Chairman - Katie McCambley, Head of Account Management - Maurice Pfister, Account Director - Charlie Snow, Strategy Director - Vicki Holgate, Executive Strategy Director Government Comms - Jane Briers, Creative Director - Dave Cornmell, Creative Director - Dave Allen, Head of Design - Patrick O'Leary, Head of Digital Design - Elspeth Belden, Designer - Ellie McCulloch, Designer - Chris Davey, Designer - James Ring, Designer - Bradley Nicholls, Designer - Emily Regan, Designer - Rachel Lipsitz, Designer - Daniel Murtha, Designer - Tom Hawtin, Designer - David Nwodeki, Designer - Steph Martin, Designer - Jan Bondad, Designer - Jamie Clough, Designer - Jack Waters, Creative Services Director - Josh Burley, Project Manager - Jemma Hamid, Project Manager - Jack Farber, Project Manager

Cabinet Office & Department for International Trade - Conrad Bird CBE, Director of Campaigns and Marketing

Department of Health and Social Care - Miriam Wraight, Head of Public Health campaigns, Covid-19 Hub, Cabinet Office & Head of Creative Content, Channels and Marketing

Cabinet Office Covid-19 Hub and PHE - Helen Hampton, Deputy Director Partnerships Public Health Marketing

NHS - Pippa Hardingham, Head of NHS Covid-19 App marketing

Contributors

OMNIGOV at Manning Gottlieb OMD, MMC, Topham Guerin, 23 Red and Freuds