Childline, the counselling service run by the NSPCC, has launched ‘Day in the Lonely’ – its latest campaign which taps into social trends to reach teens struggling with loneliness.
Aimed directly at a core audience of 12 – 17-year-olds, the creative has been designed to help young people understand that these feelings do not need to last.
Undertaken by the NSPCC in-house brand and content team, the campaign consists of a multi-channel approach and will be running across targeted digital media including Snapchat, Tiktok and Meta, with audio shorts on Spotify, in-game advertising on Xbox and digital display across gaming websites and apps.
The campaign itself features multiple edits of three storylines exploring and portraying loneliness in a ‘social native’ aesthetic.
Borrowing from the popular social media trend for ‘Day in the Life’ videos, they show how overwhelming loneliness can feel – before showing how young people can get help and take positive action using Childline resources.
“What was really important to us was reflecting the reality of how young people felt and the different ways loneliness could manifest itself,” said NSPCC creative director Lorrin Braddick.
“We wanted to portray the reality of their lives, along with elements being deliberately ‘aspirational’ to help remove some of the stigma of loneliness.”
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NSPCC also wanted to talk to its audience in an immediately identifiable way, so it made the campaign very ‘social first’ across all channels, mimicking the ‘tik-tokification’ of a young person’s social feed.
“Getting the ending and call to action right is always really important – in this case, it needed to be sensitive, empowering (showing the young person with agency), and narratively satisfying without making it feel too neat or ‘problem solved’,” said Braddick.
The films were directed by Leo Birch at Just So, in collaboration with the NSPCC team.
“It’s been a privilege to work with the creative team at the NSPCC on a campaign for such an important and, crucially, timely cause,” said Birch.
“Given the subject matter, we felt it was important to ensure the films felt authentically ‘social’ so the vast majority of the content was captured on phones by our actors themselves.”
Funded by retailer Lidl GB – which has raised funds for Childline since 2020 – the aim of the ‘Day In the Lonely’ campaign is to reflect children’s own experiences back at them, and remind them that support is available.
The campaign has been developed in the wake of new data published by Childline which reveals the service is contacted an average of 15 times a day by children struggling with loneliness – which is often a catalyst for other mental health problems.
