GCS Campaign of the Month winner August 2020

Congratulations to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), winner of August’s GCS Campaign of the Month competition for an initiative to tackle loneliness. 

Loneliness was brought into focus at the height of lockdown as the whole nation socially distanced inside their homes.

DCMS’s Let’s Talk Loneliness campaign for Loneliness Awareness Week aimed to raise awareness of loneliness, ensuring that people feel able to talk about it, know what they can do to help themselves and others, and where to access further support. 

Jake Shuter-Ross, Campaigns and PR Manager at DCMS, commented: ‘I speak for the whole team when I say we are absolutely thrilled to win this award. Loneliness has always been a pertinent issue, but never more so than during lockdown. We are so glad we were able to help people find the support and guidance they need in such a difficult time; to have our efforts recognised in this way really is the cherry on top.’

Through partnerships and creative content development, the campaign delivered 10million impressions for #LetsTalkLoneliness, plus a 940% increase in website visits during Loneliness Awareness Week compared to the previous week.

The judges felt that this campaign creatively found ways to meet objectives and have a real impact. The campaign was timely and relevant – the team demonstrated a quick response to the new context of lockdown,  to adapting their campaign to amplify the message through Loneliness Awareness Week.

The judges were particularly impressed by the partner-led approach and the way the team were able to leverage ongoing campaigns and partnerships to increase reach.  The campaign also demonstrated the effectiveness of using audience segmentation to drive partnership marketing.

Congratulations to the team, which included:

  • Sally Davies
  • Jake Shuter-Ross
  • Harriet Argyle
  • Susie McShane
  • Annie Morris
  • Paul Rutland
    Image credit:
  • Shutterstock/Nadezhda Shpiiakina (1)