Thinkbox
Benenden Health got playful on TV but with a serious topic, the nation’s health. They harnessed the power of TV by creating a moment of pause to encourage the nation to ‘Press Play’ on a healthier life.
Benenden Health is a not-for-profit, low-cost healthcare provider who offer affordable private healthcare services such as 24/7 GP helplines and diagnostics.
The Masterstroke: High-Profile hijacking
Working with their agency EssenceMediacom, WPP Media, they came up with the idea to hijack the nation’s viewing experience and ‘pause’ a TV show. For the launch, they opted for an extremely high-profile show, The National Television Awards on ITV1. From there, they continued to disrupt the schedule with hijack spots in drama, such as Coldwater as well as daytime favourites like ‘Beat the Chasers’.
In partnership with ITV, they created TV ads featuring recognisable talent like AJ Odudu, Ruth Langsford and Will Mellor to connect with their broad audience.
Infiltrating the airwaves
To extend the idea, they infiltrated ITV’s continuity announcers, turning an announcer’s cough into an impromptu brand demonstration. Live on air, the continuity announcer suddenly broke down into a severe coughing fit, forcing an impromptu ‘pause’. Once recovered, they delivered the Benenden message which was about the fact that health issues strike when you least expect them.
Throughout the campaign, ITV and STV’s roster of channel voiceover artists came down with a series of healthcare concerns that highlighted the importance of both personal and professional healthcare in the workplace.
The theme became functional
Continuing the pause theme, they also created Ad Pause ads that ran on ITVX. When a viewer hit the pause button, the Benenden ad appeared to showcase different product offerings.
Fun idea for a serious brand
What I love about this campaign is that they came up with a good idea and then executed it in all the ways they could think of – TV ads, continuity disruption and Ad Pause ads on streaming.
It’s an interesting and unusual approach to TV advertising, which I’m sure proved to be very successful for them.