Sense

Sense is a charity very close to our hearts. We’ve worked for them for almost 20 years, helping them to raise vital funds for children who are deafblind or have other complex disabilities.

There have been so many successes along the way, including “Elliot”, their very first DRTV commercial, and “Magic key”, based on a proposition co-created with the client. So when they asked us to develop a challenger ad, we knew we needed to come up with something really powerful.

But then we found a very special little boy called Thomas, who is learning to communicate with his mum using sign language, with the support of Sense. And when we discovered that one of the words he’s learnt to sign is “cuddle”, we knew we had the basis for an incredibly emotional DRTV ad.

The “cuddle” idea was right for lots of rational reasons too. We knew from the insight we’d done that people connect with Sense through their own parenting experiences. So we had reason to believe that they’d engage with this aspect of Thomas’s story. We also decided to offer a “hug” pin badge incentive to all respondents, because this has really helped lift response in the past.

Filming happened over two days. One at home with Thomas – and one at a Sense Centre in Birmingham. Both were truly joyful days. With the help of our brilliant camera crew, we were able to capture the real difference that Sense makes to children and their families.

And the most heart-warming thing of all was the response. It seems that our target audience was just as moved as we were by Thomas’s story. Early indications show that it is already beating the “Magic Key” control creative… so Sense now has not one but two brilliant ads in its arsenal!