2013 Bronze Charity

Client Miscarriage Association

How did the campaign make a difference? After a miscarriage, an essential part of the healing process is talking. Yet despite one in four pregnancies ending in miscarriage, people don't talk. So targeting was, well, untargeted. Like miscarriage itself. It led to an 82% increase in calls to the Miscarriage Association and a 370% increase in people talking about miscarriage on Facebook.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? The brief was to get people talking openly about miscarriage, and to stop those affected suffering in silence. The strategy was simple, but effective. Miscarriage targets people at random. So the campaign did too. Rather than targeting specific individuals, people were contacted randomly and anonymously. Women (and their partners, friends and family) feel very isolated and alone when experiencing miscarriage, and don't always know who to talk to about their experiences. By leaving notes in random locations, it was possible to reach out to these people and encourage them to start talking. Using a note such as this allowed people to read and digest the content in their own time. They could then talk to their partner, friends, family and Miscarriage Association, or simply share with others.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? Leaving little blue envelopes in unexpected places caught people's attention. It wasn't an anonymous billboard nor a leaflet falling out of a magazine. It was a simple but intriguing envelope, addressed by hand, left in the kind of places where people have time to sit and think, and reflect. The envelope creative enabled the charity to speak to people directly, in a highly personal way. As well as leaving thousands of physical envelopes in unusual locations, the note was also shared online, where people could read it and pass it on in social forums, allowing them to easily show their support to partners, family and friends, and sparking conversations around the topic.

Results An 82% increase in calls to the Miscarriage Association, a 370% increase in people talking about miscarriage on Facebook and a 200% increase in followers of the Miscarriage Association Facebook page. The online note was read by 328,639 people on Facebook during the campaign. There were 775 mentions on Twitter potentially reached 811,114 people. The story made it onto BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 5 Live, potentially reaching 7.6 million people on the day of broadcast alone. The story was also featured on local radio, blogs and press articles (including a mention inGrazia magazine, which has an average readership of 432,000).