We ended 2020 and started 2021 with an out of home campaign for Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria’s suicide prevention. The “Let’s keep talking” creative was displayed on billboards, bus shelters, and phone kiosks throughout December and January driving maximum impact in local areas at a time when people were struggling in silence. Through the campaign – Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria encouraged people to discuss the challenging issues they are faced due to the lockdown.

The campaign has been shortlisted for a prestigious award at this year’s NHS in the North Excellence in Supply Awards. These awards celebrate inspirational examples of businesses, third sector organisations and the NHS working together to improve patient care and support health and care staff during COVID-19.

The background to the campaign was the huge risks associated with Isolation and lockdown and the effect that this could have on vulnerable people. Through insight gathered, the campaign was quickly mobilised to reach out and share support to those most at risk groups, through (amongst other formats) – a targeted digital and out of home campaign.

Hot spots were prioritised for a complete marketing and engagement programme and a strong relevant creative was developed. Through the delivery channels a narrative was adapted across the region dependent on the audience demographic and within specific locations.

The out of home campaign was planned strategically by cross referencing priority areas with audience data as well as utilising budgets effectively to deliver maximum exposure. The phone kiosk format fit effortlessly with the ‘let’s keep talking’ creative and provided large audiences across prime locations. We peppered the campaign with high impact 48 sheets on commuter routes, as well as a host of 6 sheets to repeat the message in similar locations. The overall out of home campaign delivered close to 4 million impacts across 8 weeks.

The impact in specific areas has resulted in a huge awareness of the support available for those who are vulnerable during this period and therefore has a huge impact on the health system, specifically in the management of the number of suicides in Lancashire and South Cumbria. The campaign will continue to progress and support people and services across the region with more stages of the campaign as we start to open from lockdown measures and risks are further identified due to other reasons (furlough ending, meaning redundancy etc).