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Objectives
On 17 March 2020, schools closed across the UK in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of families were faced with months in lockdown with few resources and little experience of home schooling.
As Scouts, we wanted to use our network, resources and 100+ years’ expertise to support families at home and position Scouts as a force for good.
Strategy
I was part of a core working group that devised the idea of #TheGreatIndoors, a digital-first campaign to help young people keep learning skills while staying safe at home. I was also the copy lead for the campaign.
At the heart of the campaign was a digital hub which launched on the day schools closed. It was a place for parents to find hundreds of fun, educational activities to try with their children, that also promoted wellbeing. The (greatly reduced, as half of us were on furlough at this point) Creative team collaborated with the Digital and Programme teams to swiftly curate and create activities ideas that could be easily delivered at home. Everything went online in a searchable format, and was free and open to all. We built The Great Indoors database and landing page in just a week.
The activities were accompanied by award-winning illustrations and animations from creative studio, Young (the work was Highly Commended at the Design Week Awards 2020), as well as entertaining presenter-led videos made by Follow Films. You can read more about my work on this on the Films and podcasts page. We used these assets to promote the campaign on social media too.
We created a weekly newsletter for parents which curated a handful of our activities for them to try with their children. This was a great way to encourage engagement with Scouts, supporting families while also warming them up to join our movement post-pandemic.
I was part of the planning team for The Great Indoors Weekender – the UK’s largest digital camp at home – so that young people could enjoy a weekend of activities to replace their scheduled camps. The focus of the event was a suite of pre-recorded and live activity videos that we created, commissioned and collaborated on with our partners. Over 120,000 young people (Scouts and non-Scouts) attended, from 44 countries across the globe.
Our Scout Ambassadors, including Tim Peake, Ellie Simmonds, Dwayne Fields and Steve Backshall, supported the delivery of #TheGreatIndoors with media appearances, videos, interviews and op eds.
Results
To date, 799,593 people have visited #TheGreatIndoors pages and accessed over 200 activities, meaning we’ve supported at least 500,000 families. #TheGreatIndoors hashtag had 19 million impressions and our total reach on social media for #TheGreatIndoors to date is 3,548,206.
Overall, the media coverage for the whole #TheGreatIndoors campaign totalled over 2,000 pieces of coverage since March 2020. Over 500 million people over the world could have seen #TheGreatIndoors, and each person in the UK saw 10 pieces of campaign coverage.
This campaign won a Mark of Excellence at the CIPR Excellence Awards 2021 for Best COVID Response (Public Sector/Charity), and was shortlisted in the Third Sector Awards 2020 for Digital Innovation of the Year. It was also shortlisted at The Drum Awards for Content in the Not-for-Profit category.
Main Animation 16by9.mp4
One of the greatest challenges facing Scouts is a lack of volunteer leaders and during the pandemic, this became more of a problem than ever. We were tasked with coming up with a new ongoing recruitment campaign, to run for 12–18 months minimum.
I immediately teamed up with our Social Media Manager to create a series of messaging tests on social media. I‘d recently read a report from ITV on the Macro Moods of 2021 which included insight from Glenn Gowen, Head of Audiences. He said, ‘In 2021 we will see a shift from ‘we’ to ‘me.’ People will think about themselves more and their position in the world vs wider society.’ Testing this theory, I included our usual ‘You’ll make a difference to young people’ messaging but also included more ‘selfish’ reasons to volunteer, such as benefits to mental health, making friends and developing CV-friendly skills. The ‘selfish’ reasons performed much better.
The Communications team at Scouts immediately ran with these insights, despite how strange it felt at first moving away from talking about our beneficiaries. In May 2021, we launched #GoodForYou, a campaign that puts the personal benefits of volunteering with Scouts front and centre.
As well as working on the messaging and strategy of this campaign, I led on its creative direction. I commissioned LA-based studio Wink and Wonder to create a typographical logo, a series of illustrated icons, and a range of illustrated assets for the campaign, all with a bright, colourful and friendly feel. I also led on the main campaign film, which you can watch and learn more about on the Films and podcasts page.
#GoodForYou received 343 pieces of media coverage and made 27 million impressions with zero social spend. It resulted in more than 2,000 new volunteers at launch.
This global environmental campaign is a partnership between Scouts UK, WWF, WOSM (World Organization of the Scout Movement) and Together for Our Planet (the UK Government’s climate campaign). It aims to fight climate change by mobilising young people around the world.
Since its launch in summer 2021, young people from over 55 countries (including Brazil, India, and the Ivory Coast) have come together to launch over 2,000 Promise to the Planet projects, totalling over 100,000,000 hours of action for our world.
There are 11,000 participants in the UK to date, and a group of courageous young people represented #PromiseToThePlanet at the UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021 (COP26) with Chief Scout Bear Grylls.
I led on the brand and tone of voice for this campaign, which you can read more about on the Brand and tone of voice page.
During the summer of 2020, we carried out a survey which revealed that over 500 Scout groups – many of them based in communities that were already made vulnerable before the virus hit – were struggling to make ends meet.
To help save the groups from closure, we launched Scouts‘ first national fundraising campaign, Race Round the World. The premise was simple: we asked everyone – including young people and their families, volunteers, and former Scouts – to sign up and join one of four teams led by our celebrity ambassadors. The four teams (digitally) raced each other to see who could be the first to travel the 43,000 miles to get round the world. Everyone who took part would need to use any mode of transport available to them to travel their miles around their homes or local areas (in line with COVID restrictions), getting sponsored for each mile completed.
The campaign featured a live map where teams could track their progress across the globe and funds raised. We shared regular videos from our Ambassadors across social media and email marketing throughout the campaign, encouraging the teams to keep going and cultivating a sense of friendly competition.
Race Round the World wasn’t just a fundraiser – it was a galvanising opportunity for our members to work together on a big inspiring idea that raised spirits as well as funds. It became the biggest single fundraiser in the UK Scout movement’s history.
Race Round the World raised £737,118 in total, exceeding the £300,000 target by 146%, and achieved a Return on Investment approaching 7:1.
It was shortlisted for Digital Fundraising Campaign of the Year at the Charity Times Awards 2021.
It generated 502 pieces of media coverage. With a combined circulation of 115 million, each adult in the UK had 1.73 opportunities to view. The hashtag was seen 4 million times a week, and overall, campaign sentiment averaged 92.5% positive.
Most importantly, it saved 500 groups from closing.
Raising more than £350,000 for communities most affected by COVID-19, this was shortlisted in the Third Sector Awards 2020 for Fundraising Campaign of the Year. I led on copy for this campaign.
Our petition for free menstrual products in schools collected over 130,000 signatures and gained national press. As of January 2020, the government now provides the products. I led on brand, strategy and copy for this campaign.
An example of effective crisis comms in action, this mini campaign resulted in positive national news coverage which converted into more contracts. I led on strategy, PR, copy and social media for this campaign.
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