FEATURE4 February 2014

Creative treatment

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Charities Features Impact Video

Carly Wilson of Macmillan Cancer Support tells Jane Bainbridge how research helped find the right tone for the charity’s ‘Not Alone’ ad campaign

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When Macmillan Cancer Support wanted to create new advertising to build both awareness of, and donations for, its work, the creative execution required delicacy and diplomacy that is rarely needed for most brand advertising.

Macmillan had to walk a tightrope between competing needs. The challenge of achieving that balance fell to Carly Wilson, head of integration and brand advertising, and the ad agency VCCP, which she hired to create the campaign.

“To go out there with a piece of advertising, which in one place says, ‘You’re in a really difficult situation and going through one of the toughest things you’ll ever go through – we’re here for you’. And on the other hand, in the same piece of communication, you’ve got to try to say: ‘We can’t be here for everyone right now because we haven’t got enough money so we need your support’; that’s really difficult to do, ” says Wilson.

The result ...