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Shelter

Shelter launches new advertising campaign with Amplify to drive people to seek advice earlier

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

August 24, 2011 | 3 min read

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter has launched a new advertising campaign, created by Amplify on a pro-bono basis, to persuade people facing housing problems to seek earlier advice.

The main focus of the campaign is poster ads, although the adverts will also run on Facebook and through mobile messaging.

Each advert depicts an ordinary person in distress because they are facing a serious crisis, such as sudden job loss or mounting debt. They carry a headline which shares the desperation the person is feeling. The aim is for the combined impact of the headline and image to tap into the concerns of the people experiencing these problems, driving them to seek advice on Shelter’s website.

The poster campaign will initially launch in four towns which have been identified as hotspots for housing problems, and will run from 21 August for six weeks.

Kay Boycott, director of campaigns, policy and communications at Shelter, said: “In these tough economic times, more and more people across the country are struggling to keep their heads above water and are in desperate need of our help.

“50% of people don’t seek external advice when they encounter housing problems, so our priority in this campaign is to increase the number of people coming to us for help and reaching a positive outcome.

“Visitors to our online advice pages have increased by over a third in the last year, proving that there’s a growing demand for digital guidance. We hope the campaign will have a significant impact in showing people who have been hit by difficult times that help is just a click away, while raising the profile of housing issues further.”

Jonathan Emmins, founder of Amplify said: “Amplify is best known for being a creative comms agency specialising in non-traditional media and channels, so it has been great working with Shelter on a brief to create cut-through in a more traditional advertising space.

“It was crucial to us that the creative had the ability to shock and stand out but without resorting to gimmicks. We wanted people to empathise, to never lose sight of the real people, the real faces impacted by the current economic and housing situation.”

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