The British Heart Foundation: Creating BHF’s first socially integrated brand campaign

The Project

Heart disease kills 1 in 4 people in the UK. The British Heart Foundation has been working tirelessly for over 50 years to find a cure, funding lifesaving research. In order to raise awareness amongst the British public and encourage donations, the BHF created a nationwide brand campaign to highlight the devastating nature of heart disease.

As BHF's rostered social agency, eight&four was invited to develop a social media strategy to complement the wider brand activity. Our work included content planning, content collection and campaign messaging that would help BHF tell the story of sudden devastation through authentic native content.

Seek

Asking the British public to join the fight for every heartbeat

Social content was used to introduce campaign messaging. Existing BHF benefactors were asked to create content for us, achieving storytelling through thought-provoking, authentic video content. To widen the narrative of the TV campaign, we connected with celebrity brand ambassadors and real-life supporters to create social-first self-shot video content.

The selection of people from all walks of life effectively represented the BHF’s messaging that heart disease can affect anybody, anytime, anywhere.

Speak

Bringing authentic storytelling to native content

The narrative of the videos evolved to reflect the audience journey, with the early weeks showcasing hard-hitting stories about those affected with heart disease, providing an authentic insight into the situations conveyed in the concurrent TV ad. As the campaign progressed, the narrative changed to show survivors of heart disease, alongside the BHF’s researchers talking about the importance of the work BHF conducts.

Seed

Reaching 12.1 Million people on Facebook during the campaign period

With the support of the TV campaign, paid activity and the reach of our celebrity ambassadors, we saw an increase of 108% reach on Facebook and 85% reach on Twitter during the campaign period. Additionally, a further 20,000 new followers were generated across the social channels.

Audience engagement reinforced key campaign messages that no-one is invincible and that BHF’s research is vital for supporting those affected. Responding to this content, members of our audience reached out to tell their own stories, thanking the BHF for their work or asking for advice on heart disease.