NHS deliver a critical message with the Weather: how NHS overcame enormous pressure to prevent unnecessary A&E trips.

The NHS was under enormous pressure to prevent unnecessary A&E visits across winter months. We were tasked with changing the older 65+ demographics' perception of who to seek advice from when feeling unwell. The key requirement was to ensure the public sought advice from local, qualified pharmacists.

Insight

Vulnerable older demo groups are selective about who they listen to and seek advice from. We needed a trusted environment which would provide a friendly and familiar tone, and also reach out to carers for older groups. ITV Weather was the ideal platform to deliver the message via local bulletins.

Idea

We brought this critical health message to life by using ITV Weather presenters to deliver ‘Public advice’ messages. By featuring weather presenter Becky Mantin this gave the advice authenticity and credibility.

We created ad space which ran between the local and national news bulletins and showed creative executions which changed to reflect different weather conditions.

• ITV commissioned YouGov research focusing on the 45+ audience to understand the effectiveness of the campaign.
• The results showed that featuring Becky Mantin meant over one in four agreed it made them take the message more seriously.
• Most importantly one in three felt the message was more credible and trustworthy.
• Over half of the target audience said the ad made them think about popping down to their local pharmacist if they had a minor illness.
• Other results showed NHS doubled the amount of local visits to pharmacists. There was an increase YoY by 14% for people believing 'early advice is the best advice'.
• The Cabinet Office were so impressed with this creative and innovative partnership that they extended the campaign through the entirety of the winter months.