Tommy's

Why? Campaign Film

Spreading the message that research can give us answers to pregnancy loss, so people aren’t left asking WHY?

Charity Awareness Campaign

Currently 1 in 4 parents will lose a baby during pregnancy and birth and 60,000 babies are born too soon every year in the UK.

Impact

13 million
reach

44k
sign-ups

There is a misconception that little is known about pregnancy loss and that it is just ‘one of those things’. For any woman or man that has experienced the loss of a baby during pregnancy, this sentiment can be devastating - leaving you feeling empty, without answers and at a loss for how to deal with the next pregnancy.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Science has moved forward light years. Through advances in research we now have answers to why miscarriages, stillbirth and premature births happen, which means that they can be avoided or subsequent pregnancies managed differently. And people can have their much longed-for family.

Tommy’s is the largest charity in the UK carrying out research into the causes of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth. They exist to make pregnancy and birth safer for everyone.

Output

Campaign hero film x4

Explainer animations

Vox pop launch event film x3

Research focussed films x10

Social ads

Campaign photography

The campaign

Determined to drive awareness in this space, Tommy’s embarked on a public-facing campaign to create a number of short films and animations that make it clear that pregnancy complications are physical conditions that can be researched and treated like every other physical condition.

When Tommy’s shared their brief with MOREVER it hit a nerve… two of our senior team had experienced multiple pregnancy losses and as we brainstormed the brief, additional conversations around pregnancy loss surfaced within the team.

Rolling up our sleeves for the pitch

We pitched for the campaign wholeheartedly. We had such a clear vision borne from personal experience…

We all had something in common. Each of us had an internal list of reasons why we thought the pregnancy loss had happened that haunted us. In the absence of real answers, our brains had concocted their own…. ‘It was because of the hot showers I took in the morning, or because I ran for that train, or because of the pollution from the road I walk along everyday, or the argument I had with a partner’… and so the lists went on and on. In fact, we have since learnt that a shocking 71% of people who have experienced pregnancy loss are not told why.

This simple truth about our experience, became the concept - the simple question: WHY?
We pitched a series of beautifully filmed moving portrait vignettes, which we would weave into a story of increasingly far fetched reasons for child loss.

These vignettes would use interesting and poignant techniques, such as camera flip transitions, fragmented video elements and augmented scenes. And they would feature real people who had experienced loss, each focusing on a different reason why they thought they had been to blame for the pregnancy loss.

During the following weeks we worked closely with contributors to ensure we made an honest film that truly reflected their lived experiences. Every decision about how to approach things with the contributors was informed by our own genuine experiences.

This meant that focus groups were run sensitively and supportively, so that we came up with a list of authentic WHYs.

We invited people from the focus group to feature in the film. And we chose a large Airbnb house for our contributors to stay, so they could support one another throughout the filming experience (the thought of a lonely hotel at the end of such a shoot didn’t feel right). This way they could keep their families close by, for what we knew might be an emotional experience. We also filmed two of the vignettes at the house.

Brighton, our hometown, was the obvious location to make the film since it provided us with - city, sea and countryside locations - but it also meant our team could give round-the-clock help to the contributors, helping to make it a more supported experience.

We were lucky enough to have Tommy’s supporter Giovanna Fletcher open the film with the first vignette. Ever the pro, we filmed her during another job presenting an awards ceremony.

“I have found my tribe”

One of the contributors at the London focus group.

To the science

The hero campaign film needed to be underpinned by several more information based animation assets. These were connected conceptually and visually. The animations needed to be short, clear and compelling, to explain how organs of the body work.

We worked very closely with the researchers - bringing together their in-depth knowledge of the topic and our creativity.

All creative content resided on a hub on a specific website page where people had the opportunity to engage more deeply with the content.

Ensuring reach

We created optimised executions of the creative for distribution across multiple digital channels, including Facebook, Instagram and the Google Display Network.

We worked side-by-side with the digital agency (who managed the media plan and digital distribution) joining weekly calls to have sight of the tracking and monitoring, so we could deliver multiple social ads, changing text copy and creatives as we tested and learnt.

Campaign success

The campaign was a success; it engaged the public, informed and led to a significant increase in people signing up to find out more about Tommy’s work and become a supporter.

The campaign reached 13 million.
The hero film had 396,000 hero film views.
The animations had 45,000 views
Which led to 44,000 new database sign-ups.

Engagement, or audience retention, with the assets was very high. Viewers watched 68% of the hero film, 74% of the miscarriage animation and 80% of the post launch film featuring the researchers Professor Heazell and Professor Quenby.

A survey run pre- and post-campaign, found:

The campaign increased people’s understanding of the importance of research into making pregnancy safer in the UK by 10% (87% >97%)
That having seen the campaign people felt more optimistic about research having an effect on the number of babies lost in pregnancy or born prematurely (60% felt optimistic/very optimistic > 68%)
There was a marked increase in people who would consider donating to research into pregnancy having been exposed to the campaign (from 30% to 46%).

Tommy’s secured coverage for the campaign in - amongst others, The Metro, the Mirror, Daily Mail, Press Association and Woman magazine. Adverts that ran in The Guardian and the Telegraph used photography we had captured.

Longevity

As with all the work we do, nothing makes us happier than to see the campaign succeed…. and then for the assets to continue to have a life beyond the campaign. It’s how we know we have delivered real bang for your buck.

The animations now sit within the Tommy's website research content pages as research explainers. We produced a series of animation cut downs which have been used consistently on social media, including in Tommy’s 2021 ‘Miscarriage Matters’ campaign.

During the campaign launch event Morever filmed the event and interviewed the researchers who spoke at the event to deliver a short film. This is used regularly on social media and gets fantastic engagement - most recently seen here on Instagram.

Our final thoughts

The campaign achieved its objectives, and for the contributors and those members of the team at Morever who were impacted by pregnancy loss it gave us all a sense of purpose, vocation and hope.

It enabled us to turn our painful experiences into positives… and the results bear witness to that.

Though your heart may break with the loss of a pregnancy, there is a chance to sellotape it back together… and we are thankful to Tommy’s for giving us that opportunity.

‘Abi and her team were 100% committed from the start of the campaign. They worked very closely with our user group, really getting under the skin of the issue.

The end product was a beautiful and moving film for the campaign.

The project-management was excellent. They stayed on top of the schedule, prompted for feedback, made proactive suggestions for improvements and made sure that everything kept moving as planned.’