Better Health: PHE's Motivational Through-the-Line Campaign Kick-Starts UK Health

Public Health England has launched a new brand and campaign, ‘Better Health’ - its biggest campaign since the launch of Change4Life in 2008. The through-the-line campaign has been developed at pace to tackle the nation’s obesity crisis and reduce people’s risk of becoming seriously ill from diseases, including Covid-19.

A new TV ad and PR film are among a suite of assets designed to target the campaign audience, including South Asian, Black African and Caribbean communities. The 'Better Health' campaign is a cross-agency collaboration between M&C Saatchi, Wavemaker, freuds, Multicultural Marketing Consultancy, 23red, Manning Gottlieb, Flipside and a coalition of major brands.

Public Health England (PHE) has just launched a major new adult health campaign, called ‘Better Health’, to support people to live healthier lives, as growing evidence suggests that living with obesity or being overweight puts people at greater risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19.

Camilla Kemp, CEO, M&C Saatchi, commented: “Covid-19 has been a national wake-up call. We’ve proven that we can change our habits for the good of the country, and the NHS, and now we are going to do it for ourselves. We’re delighted to have led on developing the strategic positioning and creative platform for the new Better Health brand. We have worked at breakneck speed in partnership with PHE to develop a campaign that spans everything from broadcast paid media through to micro-targeted content driving relevancy for specific audiences – all produced, under Covid restrictions, whilst in lockdown. We’ve worked alongside PHE for over ten years developing behaviour change campaigns that have improved the health of the nation, we’re looking forward to seeing the impact this new brand and work has in inspiring positive change.”

'Better Health', which launched Monday 27th July, is a new umbrella brand with the overarching ambition of inspiring millions to improve their health. Under the ‘rallying cry’ tagline, ‘Better Health: Let’s Do This’, the campaign is PHE’s largest campaign since Change4Life launched in 2008. It focuses on adult obesity and was developed at pace in order to capitalise on a natural ‘health reset’ presented to the nation. Nearly two thirds (63%) of adults in England are overweight or obese, and initially the campaign will encourage adults to introduce changes that will help them work towards a healthier weight. In the coming months the campaign will also include wider support to help people live healthier lives, with advice on quitting smoking and how people can look after their mental health.

The through-the-line campaign has been devised to reach as many people as possible with high impact broadcast activity across TV and VOD, with a brand-new TV ad and a suite of campaign assets created by M&C Saatchi. The campaign creative reflects energy and positivity, and stars a diverse cast of real people, to encourage all adults to get up and have a go at making simple changes which can lead to a healthier lifestyle.

Julia Bainbridge, partner and founder of freuds Health and Behaviour Change, said: “We know that creating change in adult obesity is challenging and that we needed to use this unique moment in time to alert the nation to the risk of carrying excess weight for diseases like Covid-19, without causing fear or distress. When developing a campaign like this, it’s vitally important to keep front of mind the key principles of behaviour change and we’ve been able to apply our experience in this field and our expertise on working with other high profile government clients within this challenging Covid-19 landscape to help launch a campaign to the public which can drive change.”

Large format out of home, radio, social, and digital homepage takeovers, as well as extensive national and regional PR and partnerships activity from freuds and 23Red will further amplify the campaign launch.

The campaign also targets BAME groups that have high rates of obesity and increased rates of contracting and dying of Covid-19, including South Asian, Black African and Caribbean communities. To achieve this, the campaign’s media reach covers over 90% of the BAME population by up-weighting spend towards these communities, and ensuring advertising appears in a range of channels, radio stations and publications that are most likely to be consumed by at risk communities (as devised by the Multicultural Marketing Consultancy). The creative is also representative of the English population and features people from all areas of our diverse society.

Patricia Macauley, founder of Multicultural Marketing Consultancy, commented: “Covid-19 has disproportionately impacted BAME communities so it is important to be able to provide culturally relevant nutrition advice from experts to ensure we can engage BAME groups in a meaningful way. Working with two leading BAME health organisations - South Asian Health Foundation and Caribbean African Health Network as well as multilingual community ambassadors will initiate conversations at grassroots level and provide advice on how to adapt traditional dishes to make them healthier.”

Sheila Mitchell, marketing director at PHE, said: “This is key moment for people to reset and make changes to improve their health. We’ve worked hard with all of our agencies to develop a campaign which is inspiring and motivational in tone but which also lands the health harms message of how being overweight or obese can increase your risk of serious illness, including Covid-19. The campaign showcases how a sophisticated blend of marketing disciplines, which all complement each other, can reach and rally a significant tranche of the general population to have, what we hope will be, a real lasting impact”.

In line with the Government’s policy package, given the importance for those who need to lose weight in light of Covid-19, PHE is bringing together a range of free tools to help people decide what will work best for them to support their individual weight loss journey. At the heart of the programme is the updated, NHS Weight Loss Plan app, which supports people on a behaviour change journey, developed and designed by Flipside.

Carol Middleton, client managing director, Wavemaker, commented: “Wavemaker have interrogated those vulnerable audiences at higher risk of Covid-19 to provide in depth insights and understanding resulting in a balanced campaign of broadcast activity to generate mass awareness at launch and Narrowcast to specifically target those at high risk using hyper targeted activity. It’s incredibly exciting for us to be part of the quest to reset the nation’s health, bringing positive behaviour change at this difficult time.”

PHE has also leveraged a coalition of partners to inspire and support the target audience to make changes. With the support of PHE’s partnership marketing agency, 23red, activity includes exclusive offers from the largest weight management providers, such as WW – Weightwatchers reimagined, Slimming World, GetSlim and Man vs Fat, Second Nature and EFL Fit Fans, as well as commitments from a wide variety of sectors including media and leisure.

Jane Asscher, CEO, 23red, commented: “Adult obesity is a big concern requiring an equally big shared ambition that is more impactful when delivered in partnership. For this campaign 23red has brought together the academic evidence and audience insight from PHE with the power of big brands to inspire, facilitate and motivate positive health behaviours.

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