Project Overview
As the Canal & River Trust celebrated its 10th anniversary, we were appointed to plan and deliver an ambitious summer campaign encouraging people to spend time near water to help improve their wellbeing.
Those aged 20–24 are finding it difficult to come back from the pandemic, and evidence shows that their mental wellbeing is particularly effected. The campaign we created promotes the benefits of being by water.
One of the key campaign objectives was to reach 18-35 year olds – the Trust’s future supporters – and motivate them to use these unique outdoor spaces. The aim is to create a ‘habit loop’ of continued activity.
Campaign messaging and language was rooted in changing behaviour, that had flexibility for use cross-platform and was built around a core proposition.
In leisure time, people generally find things to do, rather than seeking out wellbeing, which is a byproduct. We built messaging around ‘Find your…’ which allowed for bolt-on messaging to reach groups within the 18-35 age range in addition to the wider audience.
The initial awareness phase consisted of paid social campaign and an OOH campaign including a ‘spillboard’ at Camden Market – the crossing point with our primary audience and the canal network.
For the action phase, we developed a viral ‘mood monitor’ to engage people on social and create a positive feedback loop. This activity would feed into a ‘share and repeat’ phase resulting in shared social moments to build and sustain momentum.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Red Stone creative and project teams
Project Brief
The Canal & River Trust looks after 2,000 miles of waterways across England and Wales. Their research shows that spending time by water really can make us feel happier and healthier.
As the Trust celebrated its 10th anniversary, they planned to launch a summer campaign with a focus on younger people. The latest ONS Subjective Wellbeing Data shows that those aged 20–24 are finding it hard to come back from the pandemic, and evidence shows that mental wellbeing is particularly low for this group. In addition, the Trust’s own 2020 Enrichment Research shows that being by water is good for wellbeing. The planned campaign represented an opportunity to promote the benefits of being by water with this younger audience.
To widen the reach of the campaign, the younger group was extended to include 18-35 year olds – the Trust’s future supporters – to make them aware of canals and motivate them to use these unique outdoor spaces to improve their wellbeing. The aim was to create a ‘habit loop’ of continued activity. The broader aim was to reach all existing and non-users within 1km of a canal to make them aware that being by water is better for their health too.
Reasons and motivations to visit the canal vary greatly by age group. There is evidence that canals are used in four key ways; connecting with other people, finding some space, disconnecting and escaping, recharging and re-energising.
Project Innovation/Need
Out of the four user motivations listed above there were two key sub themes:
– Experience seekers: Those looking for defined activities. They tend to favour fun pursuits with a tangible benefit. Their engagement with canals is likely to be less frequent and more planned, with canals being a nice addition, but not the main focus of an activity. The audience mainly consists of millennials (without children).
– Time fillers: Those who are more likely to value having the canal on their doorstep, using them as a means of ‘just getting outside’. For them the canal is the focus. This audience mainly consists of families with younger children and dog owners.
The campaign would signpost ‘experience seekers’ to the Trust’s ‘Canalathon’ its fundraising challenge of the year and other events. There would be a mindfulness tool for those that seek calm (time fillers).
Evidence strongly points towards the younger group responding to social media moments or opportunities, so the campaign also needed to consider an activity or engaging opportunity that would draw them to the canal for a TikTok/Instagram moment.
Lastly, evidence suggests that people don’t seek out ‘wellbeing’ as such, but seek out ‘things’ that they want to do so, in the case of canal visits, wellbeing becomes the byproduct.
Design Challenge
Objectives
These were broadly categorised in three areas:
1. Awareness – social media engagements
2. Behaviour change – visit the canal
3. Improve wellbeing – mood monitor/sharing stories
For the 12 week campaign, running from June to the end of August 2022 the targets were:
Traffic to website: 61k link clicks.
Engagements: 22k engagements on organic social.
Paid social: 6.2m impressions and 42k link clicks.
Out of home: 1.9k OTS.
Organic social: 881k impressions, 22k engagements and 2.5k link clicks.
Brand awareness: 10m OTS.
We planned and executed a campaign through a mix of social and OOH channels. We knew that campaign messaging would be key factor in reaching varied audiences so it had to be flexible, built around a core proposition.
We developed three creative approaches which were used as stimulus for testing. There was a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults, reached using an omnibus survey, over three waves to get approximately 1,000 responses from 18-34 year olds, plus approximately 1,000 responses from other demographics.
The creative that performed the best in testing used messaging around a ‘Find your happy place by water’ proposition which allowed for maximum flexibility through adding a number of pay off lines to ‘Find your…’ to reach groups both within the 18-35 age range as well as the wider group with content and messages that we knew would most appeal. We implemented the campaign in two phases: an awareness phase and an action phase.
User Experience
The initial awareness phase consisted of an out of home (OOH) campaign and paid social campaign. We booked a 48-sheet site under Camden Lock bridge, the crossing point with our primary audience and the canal network. The location has high footfall with the younger target group and a stand-out visual was required to generate conversation and encouraged organic social sharing.
We created a ‘spillboard’ featuring a giant goose pointing the way to the canal. During the installation we made a time lapse film for social to generate interest in the site.
For the action phase, we developed a viral ‘mood monitor’ to engage people on social and create a positive feedback loop. Canal visitors were directed the campaign web page and asked about their mental/physical wellbeing. This activity fed into a ‘share and repeat’ phase resulting in shared social moments that built and sustained momentum.
The campaign has exceeded targets, with a successful paid social campaign and a huge boost to brand awareness in general.
Traffic to website: 133% of campaign target.
Engagements: 93% of campaign target.
Paid social: 144% of impressions target, and achieved 168% of link clicks target.
Out of home: 1,974,905 OTS overall.
Organic social: 82% of impressions target, and 93% of our engagements target.
Brand awareness: 1,148% of our campaign target
What they said
“This [Camden OOH spillboard] is such a huge success, I absolutely LOVE it and can’t wait to see the video.”
Campaigns Manager, Canal & River Trust
Marketing - Branded Experience
This award celebrates creative and innovative design for branded experiences intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take some action upon products, ideas or services. Consideration given to the technical, conceptual and aesthetic elements, user experience, audience engagement and message delivery.
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