The British Heart Foundation needed to raise the issue of heart attacks among the female population - the biggest killer among women - but found that only 11% thought themselves at risk and that there was considerable taboo against talking about the subject.
The solution was to create comedy content themed around the issue. At a sold-out live theatre event in London, Victoria Wood hosted a night of female comedy discussing affairs of the heart. This provided a vehicle to tackle the challenges surrounding female heart disease. Along with comediennes Jo Brand, Katy Brand, Julia Davies and Jessica Hynes, the event used stand-up, sketches and songs to explore the themes of love, life, death and illness, all linking back to the issue of female heart disease.
The show was also screened live in Vue Cinemas, extending the live audience to 3,000, and received rave reviews from critics. The show was screened on Sky One, on Christmas Day and Mother's Day and a DVD of the show was distributed with 440,000 copies of the Mother's Day edition of Woman's Weekly magazine.
The activity resulted in a 44% increase in the target audience agreeing that heart disease is the biggest killer of women. That means 2.3 million women are now thinking about heart health and are discussing it with other women.
One in 20 have brought up the subject with their GPs. Judges described the campaign as 'incredibly creative' and said that 'the idea was really powerful and genuinely something innovative with a limited budget'.
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Sainsbury's (Agency: Seven Publishing Group)
Sainsbury's was looking to get closer to mums of babies and toddlers and in 2009, it created the Little Ones Baby and Toddler Club. The retailer wanted to become a source of trust for new mums. Working with Seven Publishing, Sainsbury's created a series of communications such as a quarterly magazine, a website and emails.
Other store chains have their own baby clubs, as do baby brands Hipp, Heinz and Pampers. But Sainsbury's thought it could stand out by offering free nutrition advice and recipes for young families.
The approach has been successful, with half a million members joining. 'There was a very clear strategy differentiating people who were existing customers of Sainsbury's and those who weren't,' said the judges. 'We were very impressed by this, it was just so rich with data.'
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