Happy to Support
Age Concern
Happy’s WTF (What the Flock) campaign is helping Age Concern tackle loneliness in Lancashire.
Outrageous. It’s not your conventional brand value, but then Age Concern aren’t your conventional client. They’re an independent charity based in Preston on a mission to combat the often overlooked epidemic of loneliness in Lancashire. They are entirely self-funded, so the success of their provocative and disruptive (in a nice way) campaigns really matters.
They needed a campaign. The result was WTF - which stands for What the Flock, before you get the wrong impression.
Flocking together
It’s appropriate that a campaign built on bringing people together was developed in a similar spirit. The Happy team joined forces with Age Concern’s in-house talent, collaborating on developing the overarching WTF theme and then applying it to blogs, video, the press launch and media relations including coverage online, in print and on TV and radio.
If the ‘outrageous’ brand value gave us licence to push the campaign messaging into its edgier WTF territory, it also gave us lots of scope at the press launch, where assembled TV crews, journalists and local businesses sampled branded WTF beer and met a well-behaved flock of sheep.
McDonalds joins the campaign
Loneliness isn’t a high profile issue. Yet it’s estimated that 35,000 people in Lancashire aged 65 years and over are chronically lonely and isolated. Research shows the effect of such poor social connections can be as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Age Concern fights loneliness by funding carer groups, home visits and dozens of activities every week.
That’s why we’re delighted to be getting involved. And we’re happy to say the campaign is already gathering real momentum. Just recently, Age Concern announced a partnership with more than a dozen McDonalds restaurants across Lancashire. And we’re hopeful of more high profile partners joining the WTF campaign soon.
Chief Happy Karen Lambert said, “Like many people, we were unaware of the shocking extent of loneliness in Lancashire and its damaging effects. The opportunity to support a local charity supporting local people gave us real motivation to create a powerful campaign. Collaborating on a project that can make such a difference is very fulfilling.”
