Clap-Counter Tracks Public Thanks of NHS Heroes
A new campaign that super
targets NHS staff and care workers across the UK has been launched, displaying
the digital outpouring of thanks made across Twitter towards them. The
campaign, devised by creative agency Mc&T and executed in partnership with
location marketing specialist Posterscope, features on outdoor sites around
major hospitals in the UK and shows the tally of social thanks every day at 7am
and 7pm GMT targeting shift changeovers for staff arriving and leaving major
hospitals.
Over the next few weeks the campaign will target major hotspots for Covid-19
patients and their carers, including University College Hospital, Royal
Hospital Chelsea, Bristol Royal Infirmary and several others across London and the UK.
A website version - www.thankyouNHS.online - tracks digital ‘thank yous’
that take place on Twitter in real time and aggregates them to give a total
digital counter of ‘claps’. Since 8pm on Thursday 26th March there have been
nearly 700,000 digital displays of gratitude for the NHS, with the number
ever-growing.
The website allows users to further show their support for the NHS by either
clicking to donate money to the NHS Charities Together, the umbrella organisation set up to
represent all the 250 NHS charities. Users can click through to donate to the
established NHS Charities Covid-19
Urgent Appeal fund or can choose
to click to volunteer via the Royal Voluntary Service
The initiative aims to create a central point to galvanise the support of the
UK behind the NHS in a time of need. By broadcasting the collective digital
thanks, it is hoped that more people across the UK will be implored to offer
their support either by monetary donations or by donating their own time as
volunteers.
Ellie Orton, chief executive of NHS Charities commented: “The UK public as a
whole has already responded magnificently to the need of the NHS. Public shows
of thanks such as the 8pm ‘Clap for our Carers’ campaign and the rush to
volunteer provide an enormous amount of motivational and emotional support to
NHS and care workers at this difficult time. We hope that with the launch of
ThankYouNHS.online we can also display the digital support for the NHS and use
this to further communicate to care workers that we recognise and are thankful
for their vital contribution.”
Paul McEntee, for creative agency Mc&T who devised the campaign said: “ We
were Inspired by the physical displays of appreciation that have taken place
since the first ‘Clap for Carers’ and wanted to show this digital as it grew.
We don’t know what carers and key workers are going through in those hospitals
across the UK, but if we can reach them at shift start and shift end with a
message of support, maybe that might lift them and remind them the whole nation
is thinking of them.
Posterscope, in partnership with Liveposter, their dynamic content delivery
platform, who created the OOH plan, commented: “It's important that we continue
to show our frontline workers how much we appreciate them, and sharing these
thousands of Twitter messages in real time across digital out of home screens
close to their workplaces will help to do that. Digital out of home is proven
to amplify and accelerate social media campaigns, as people increasingly engage
with and share outdoor ads online, so we hope this encourages yet more people
to share their support on Twitter.”
