Diabetes UK | Type 1 campaign
Self-shooting producer/director
Diabetes UK wanted to create their first campaign aimed at young people in order to attract and engage an audience they had previously not targeted with bespoke content. They knew from research that making the move from paediatric care to adult services (transition) can be a stressful, challenging and potentially lonely time. Therefore they wanted to create a suite of films to give them practical support and information in a light tone, through real stories.
They wanted two films distinctly crafted for Instagram to meet the audience where they are. Tone and style were an important feature of the brief to ensure these films would grab the audience’s attention in the ‘scroll’ and relate to them to encourage continued viewing.
In addition, Diabetes UK planned to revamp an area of their website for transition content, and wanted a further two films to continue the story of the people featured on social media, which would provide an in-depth exploration of their experience. Surrounding these films would be options to click through to support resources.
The selection of characters for the films was requested of me in order to ensure a careful mix of experiences were reflected in the two case studies.
“Catherine helped conceptualise the content approach for a project which was targeting a new demographic for Diabetes UK and really took on board the brief and our objectives to shape the creative direction.
The campaign was really successful and certainly achieved what we set out to do. Awesome stats around new visitors to the site and finally we have had the 18-25 age bracket appear in Google Analytics!”
Fay Kendall, Marketing & Comms Manager, Diabetes UK
My pitch focused on films for social media with a direct approach to gain instant connection; where the contributor would address the audience - a common and popular trait in films this demographic is already watching. The tone was pacey and relatable to hook and retain the viewer.
I wanted my approach to feel raw, informal and human, in contrast to the very formal, medical, clinical tone of much of the existing Diabetes UK content.
In order to create films that would be easy to digest for an audience on a channel which is predominantly about quick, fun, social engagements, I decided to tightly script pacey films almost in a staccato, list feel to keep things moving whilst packing in substance. I felt it important to consult young people whilst scripting the films to stress-test them.
The scripts showed that Becky and Kurtis had overcome hurdles which highlighted that Diabetes UK possibly had further content that might be useful to this audience, and aimed to encourage the viewer by highlighting that they are not alone.
I wanted the films to feel inspirational, but not out of reach, which played into my decisions around the careful casting of Kurtis and Becky from a shortlist of potential contributors. I wanted the stories to differ and reach different segments of the target audience given the experiences and personality traits seemed so varying.
Finally, I bookended the films with the same start and end copy, to signal the films were part of a larger campaign and part of the same ‘collection’. I wove in the phrase ‘managing it’ as a way of bringing positive, active language into the campaign that could be used in copy on posts.
Impact
High engagement seen across social media with a low cost per click achieved on Facebook, and the Instagram films becoming the most popular on the channel.
Targeting young adults directly, particularly through Instagram, rather than speaking to them via parents proved successful and attracted new users.
Engaged new audiences on both social media and website, with 89% of the traffic being new.
High audience retention rate for the case study films on the website, and a dwell duration 3.5 times higher than average, highlighting that the content resonated with the audience.
Becky’s story attracted a higher percentage of new audiences, suggesting a need for ‘tougher’ stories like this to be shared and making Diabetes UK relevant and useful to a new group of people.
The designed user journey was successful and a good click through rate to the accompanying information pages on the website was achieved proving that the storytelling and formats did engage audiences, and that the multi-channel approach with content created for each platform worked.