Situation:

World Parkinson’s Day is an annual event aimed at raising awareness of the condition and celebrating the Parkinson’s community. It’s a global happening driven by the community and amplified by Parkinson’s UK.

Task:

Could we co-create a campaign, that is authentically the voice of the community, and could we make it as big as possible, so that media take note?

Action:

The idea was to work with poets within the Parkinson’s community to tell the story of their condition in an engaging and positive way. This built on my concept in the previous year working with poets in a more limited campaign, but this time we were able to really ramp it up and integrate it with the new brand narrative, ‘it doesn’t have me’. I worked closely with the community to develop a series of digital ads and a series of films with poets reading their work. We also managed to get well known Manc. Poet, Mike Garry (currently touring with punk poet John Cooper Clarke) to read one of the poems.

Results:

Working closely with the Corporate Partnerships team I pitched the concept to digital outdoor media owners, Smart Outdoor, and we secured two fantastic gifts of media space: 2,000 digital sites across the UK (list price £1m) plus others within their network of other media owners who got on board.The campaign gained viral sharing too – see London Underground posts.

We pitched the idea to Piccadilly Lights (Landsec) in Piccadilly Circus who gifted a 10 minute takeover on World Parkinson’s Day to create a media moment, which the charity were able to make full use of.

The campaign coordinated across social media, website and PR to huge success and resounding approval from the Parkinson’s community.

Promo film for World Parkinson’s Day 2023

People from the community capturing reactions to the poetry campaign

Promo film for World Parkinson’s Day 2023