Proud to Make a Difference

Avatar
Written by

Tags: Barnardo's Believe in Me charity Contact the Elderly coverage PR

We love to challenge public perceptions at Stand and that mantra is at the core of our work with our charity clients. Generating national coverage and impressive reach for our social campaigns is a given, but actually seeing the difference that campaign makes to real lives – that’s the true reward.

We worked with Barnardo’s on the launch of their ‘Believe in Me’ campaign which, with a brand new hard-hitting advert at the core of it, highlights the importance of believing in children so as to empower them to overcome life’s hurdles.

Alongside a successful media campaign with scores of coverage in traditional titles, our standout moment emerged on social media with a truly heart-warming moment you couldn’t make up.

Calling for people to share a childhood photo and tell us who believed in them as a child, the campaign generated general awareness for Believe in Me and saw various celebs dig deep into their memory boxes and share their photos with followers. Luke Pasqualino, Fay Ripley and Charlotte Crosby were just some of the high-profile people to get involved, sharing Believe in Me with millions of people.

But our proudest moment from the campaign was when a care leaver and his former carer were re-united after 20 years. It began with a care leaver crediting his former carer for helping him to achieve a happy and contented life, and, through the power of Facebook and various comments, ended with the two being reunited with plans to catch up on times gone by.

Another tear-jerking moment came from our client Contact the Elderly. The national charity combats loneliness and isolation of older people aged 75 and over who live alone, without family, friends or other support networks nearby. Local groups host monthly tea parties, giving older people the chance to have a regular social activity to look forward to.

‘Be Our Guest’ is a campaign reaching out to isolated older people before the nights draw in for the winter months and calling for the general public to look and listen out for those suffering with loneliness in their community.

With a strong call to action and a winning pitch, the team secured a 20 minute feature on ITV’s This Morning including interviews with a Contact the Elderly spokesperson, older guests and a volunteer. The piece really showed the difference the monthly tea parties make to the lives of older people and the reaction in response to the feature was incredible. There were over 80 enquiries to the charity’s central office in the space of an hour, 190 applications to volunteer in one day (nearly 20x the normal figure) and 30 older guest referrals and applications.

We’re proud of what we achieve with our campaigns at Stand, but to us it’s about more than media hits and SEO. To us it’s personal, and work like this helps you go home with a warm feeling that you are actually changing lives.

 

The future of payment – the revolution of mobility technology

Phasing out petrol and diesel cars and introducing EVs is a great option in...

More information

Claire Brady on Net Zero Hero Podcast

Some people think that ‘circularity’ simply means recycling, but it is so much more...

More information

Earth Day

Earth Day provides an opportunity to take stock of our progress towards addressing the...

More information

When it comes to making sustainability claims, getting it wrong can cost organisations the earth

According to Robin Hicks, “2022 was the year that policymakers started to take greenwashing...

More information

Less is more: How low alcohol brands are targeting their Gen Z consumers

Dry January may be over, but giving up alcohol definitely hasn’t gone out of...

More information

Beyond B Corp: Breaking up with Barclays 

Last year we became a certified B Corp, and to do so we had...

More information

Three takeaways from the IPCC’s ‘final warning’ report 

This week has seen the release of the latest IPCC report assessing the climate...

More information

Why we’ve introduced a 4.5 day working week

As the rulebook of the working week gets rewritten, at Stand we continue to...

More information

Stand shifts as we move into our second decade

I founded Stand with one simple (but typically ambitious) belief: that good comms can...

More information

So… has the pandemic set us back or propelled us forward?

Last week, just days after the restrictions in England were lifted, we hosted our...

More information

Wellbeing is not a one-size-fits-all approach

It’s safe to say that being plunged into multiple lockdowns across the past 18...

More information

Covid-19 has given us a harsh lesson in education inequality

Although ‘Freedom Day’ is here, Covid’s effects will, as we hear all too often,...

More information

The pandemic of inequalities

Last week, the Health Foundation’s Unequal pandemic, fairer recovery report made headlines, revealing that...

More information

Has the pandemic set us back 50 years, or will it propel us forward?

At its onset, Covid-19 was described as the great leveller. But the pandemic has...

More information

Pride 2021: Tokenistic campaigns just won’t fly anymore

June is Pride Month, a time for celebrating the diverse accomplishments, identities, and members...

More information