Getting the Nation Talking… In BSL

Client: Cadbury Fingers

Additional credits: Tin Man Communications

‘Fear of missing out’ (FOMO), is a jokey phrase used so often that it now appears in the Oxford English dictionary. However, for deaf people, it’s no laughing matter.

The frustration of missing out on conversations and human connections is their daily reality. Cadbury Fingers’ new ATL campaign called ‘Sign with Fingers Big and Small’, in partnership with leading charity, National Deaf Children’s Society, encouraged the nation to learn British Sign Language (BSL) to help include the deaf community in more precious, shared moments. Our job was to work with the brand and the charity to build awareness of the issue, amplify the ATL and bridge the communication gap between the hearing and deaf communities. We knew the hearing community had to genuinely experience FOMO like those in the deaf community to fully relate. So, we teamed up with deaf TV star personality, Tasha Ghouri (Love Island) and Giovanni Pernice (Strictly Come Dancing partner of deaf contestant Rose Ailing-Ellis), to utilise their powerful social media platforms. With a combined following of 2.1M, our films revealed juicy relationship exclusives, but with a twist. The exclusives were teased using BSL with obscured subtitles to provoke a rush of FOMO and frustration from non BSL users. Only then did we reveal the true purpose of the campaign. The results? 53% of Brits would now consider learning some BSL, awareness of the charity increased and we saw a 20% increase in the association between the brand and its purpose of ‘everyday moments of connection’.