Often, the best campaigns to work on are those that have a positive impact on the community, where you can see a genuine benefit to those who’ve engaged with your work.
That’s why we jumped at the opportunity to work with Beat the Street on the launch of their Barnsley initiative earlier this summer.
Beat the Street, a free, fun challenge, rewards participants with points and prizes for exploring their town or city on foot, scooter or bicycle. The UK-wide game sees players tap ‘Beat Boxes’ with cards and fobs registered to online accounts to track their journey and earn points for themselves and their team – the more Beat Boxes people swipe during a journey, the more points they earn.
The decision to launch in Barnsley was dictated by the area’s poor health statistics, so the main aim from our perspective was to get the word out there, engage with our key target audiences directly, and support Beat the Street’s drive for change.
We used a mix of tactics; everything from press releases for Diabetes Week through to taking part in the Mayor’s Parade, where we were cheered on by thousands of Barnsley residents! We also involved the local football club, Barnsley FC, to help encourage the 80 partaking schools to push for victory.
The coverage rolled in from local press, both print and broadcast, with regional media and even BBC Health getting involved. However the biggest result is the fact that exit surveys show a distinct behaviour change in those who took part, especially with players from the most deprived areas of Barnsley.
Collectively, the people of Barnsley walked 140,000+ miles during the 6-week campaign. That’s enough miles to travel around the world 5 times!
For us, this change in mindset (along with having a happy client) is the best outcome we could have hoped for.
For more information on how we supported Beat the Street Barnsley and to see the results in more detail, read the Hatch Beat The Street Case Study.
A new initiative’s launching across #Barnsley to get kids and parents doing more exercise.
Our reporter @astridquinn_ went along to find out how @BTS_Barnsley works pic.twitter.com/7tE7iX65ep
— Hallam FM News (@hallamfmnews) June 5, 2019
