Category: Titanium and Integrated
Advertiser: THE BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
Product/Service: CHARITY
Agency: GREY LONDON
Executive Creative Director: Nils Leonard (Grey London)
Creative Director: Dan Cole (Grey London)
Creative Director: Andy Garnett (Grey London)
Planner: Ollie Gilmore (Grey London)
Managing Partner: Annie Gallimore (Grey London)
Account Manager: Sophie Fredheim (Grey London)
Media placement: Vending Machines In Secondary Schools - Various - 2nd January 2012
Describe the campaign/entry
Childhood obesity is a serious issue for the UK. At least a third of our children are overweight. Inactivity, poor diet and being obese increase the risk of heart and circulatory disease, the UK’s single biggest killer. We needed to raise the awareness of the importance of healthy eating amongst school children and affect behaviour change towards healthier eating.
To do this, we needed to change the choice architecture around healthy foods, and positioning them as something they would potentially choose over junk foods.
Rather than yet another advertising campaign telling children what to eat, we decided to put the children in charge. Using their school corridors, classrooms and playgrounds as the media, we created Food4Thought Healthy Vending Machines - the only vending machines created by schoolchildren, for schoolchildren. Responsibility was handed over to the pupils: they conducted taste tests, market research, designed the machines and created their own launch marketing materials.
Describe how the campaign/entry was launched across each channel in the order of implementation
The campaign was launched as vending machines in 30 secondary schools, from early January as schools started Term 1. Once the machines arrived, schools created their own bespoke marketing materials in-house, to promote the machines within the schools and to generate excitement. Simultaneously, schools were set up with access to ‘Snackville’, an online game where students managed their own virtual vending machines in an online game that converted healthy points into a real world prize for the best performing school: a live performance by dance sensation, Akai, in their school canteen.
Give some idea of how successful this campaign/entry was with both client and consumer
• Already over 30,000 children now have access to healthier snacks in their schools thanks to the Food4Thought machines.
• Initial research indicates that less children are leaving school and going off site to eat unhealthy snacks and students and teachers are already integrating the machines in lessons and coursework.
• The findings also show that the Food4Thought machines make it easier and more convenient to eat healthily during the day and generate excitement amongst students.
• The vast majority are already operating the machines at a profit, which goes back into the schools.
Food4Thought Vending Machines target the children when and where they’re most likely to snack on junk, delivering not just a healthy message but, crucially, affordable healthy food. It rewards the children for getting involved and the schools for taking part: all proof that it pays to eat healthy.