The aim was to develop evidence-based social marketing campaigns and led to the creation of a series of plasticine characters who communicated key messages, during winter, to the target audience. The family of figures was created from scratch, and designed to be inclusive and appeal to all sectors of the demographic.

A range of advertising used the new creative, including internet marketing, newspaper and radio advertisements, and leafleting. We led a thorough research process in partnership with NEUCN: this included a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Reaction to the characters showed they were seen as warm, friendly and trustworthy.

The overall (unprompted) recall was exceptionally high at 50%. The prompted recall – elicited when visual/audio examples from the Plasticine Characters Winter Campaign were shown – was higher than would normally be expected for a single campaign.

As a result, 35% of respondents to the evaluation questionnaire said they were very likely to use NHS services other than A&E as a result of seeing or hearing adverts or information about NHS urgent and emergency care services, or staying well this Autumn/Winter, including the Plasticine Characters Winter Campaign.

Since the original campaign, we have been asked to develop a new set of plasticine family members, to keep the creative fresh and relevant as the campaign rolls out.

(No plasticine was used in the creation of this campaign; all the images were digitally created.)