Time to Change?

Our recent CCG Communications Tweets about eskimosoup’s latest award nominations got us thinking…

We thought we would give you a little run down of why we (and hopefully the judging panel) think our Time to Change Hull campaign with NHS Hull is one of the front-runners to get the gong for Best Website at this year’s Association for Healthcare Communications and Marketing Awards.

www.1in4ofus.co.uk is an interactive website that acts as a central hub in this social marketing campaign aimed at increasing awareness and reducing stigmas around mental health in the city. The campaign has been running since May 2012 and is set to continue until March 2013. It is part of an integrated project of PR, events, signage advertising and print distribution and it is this central website which is used to provide further information or signpost visitors to relevant services and support groups. Additionally the channels of promotion through social media in particular enable the website to become an interactive promotional tool as well as a source of information. This has been a huge success so far with the site receiving 600 unique visitors per month – a figure which is set to increase as the campaign ramps up. 

Top 10 Features

Identity – The domain name www.1in4ofus.co.uk is simple and represents the inclusive nature of the tool, i.e. 1 in 4 of us will experience mental health problems rather than “them” or “people”. 

Look and Feel – The website design is easily recognised and is very bright, positive and has touches of humour. 

Misdirection – Using four different people in a range of situations helps to show mental health can affect everyone but by using a misdirection method whereby many users would incorrectly assume it is “crazy looking” Billy who suffers from mental health problems it makes people think and challenges assumptions. This is an approach we have received overwhelming support for in focus groups. 

 

 

1 in 4 representations – This being a local campaign we wanted to ensure that people in the city would get behind the campaign and appreciate the scale of the issue. Using easily recognisable scenarios such as “a lift carrying EIGHT people. TWO might need to talk” gets the point across but applying the formula to more familiar things such as the capacity of the KC Stadium (Hull City’s football ground) ensures the campaign hits closer to home.

Social Media Integration – A unique feature of the site is applying the 1 in 4 message to social media. For every Facebook, Twitter or YouTube follower the campaign receives we have used a formula to divide them by four to reinforce the key awareness message.

The BIG Picture – In order to help promote the viral nature of the website we developed an application that enables users to interact with the campaign and upload their own photos to become part of the 1 in 4 representations. For Facebook users this can be done automatically which would take a very long winded explanation of how we have done it but, to be brief, let’s just say it is very clever!

Multimedia Content – The website also hosts videos to support the campaign many of which have been locally produced and feature people from Hull discussing the issue – many with humorous yet poignant content throughout.

Activities and Events – Using yet more specialist techniques the website has been fully integrated with the Google Map system in a super slick module that not only shows upcoming events but locates where they are for you. This is a key part of campaign interaction.

Recognising Campaign Partners and Support Services – The campaign has gained the support of key public, private and voluntary sector organisations. These are recognised in a rotating footer on our website as well as provide links to many of the leading local and national organisations within the field of mental health. Targeting employers is another key part of the campaign and as such we have included a section called “Your Organisation” that offers practical advice for both employers and employees and shows how they can get involved.

Photo Gallery – Within the campaign there is a lot of community activity so we have, therefore, included a gallery to which event photography or campaign resources are uploaded.

Please feel free to have a play around with all the many fun and informative functions of the website at: www.1in4ofus.co.uk. We are very proud of it and we hope you like it too!